Table 2.

Education intervention topics

Knowledge	Do you suffer from heart failure?
Attitudes	What is ‘heart failure’ for you?
Motivation	What do you know about heart failure?
	How do you live with this disease?
	What impact has heart failure had on your life (personal, professional, social)?
	What are your fears?
	What are your expectations?
Clinical alarm signs	For you, what could be a clinical alarm sign of your heart failure?
	What should you do to detect clinical alarm signs?
	Do you know what to do if you detect clinical alarm signs?
Physical activity	What does physical activity mean for you?
	What physical activities do you undertake? Housework? Leisure (e.g. gardening)? Transportation (e.g. walking, car)?
	When are you breathless? (New York Heart Association assessment)
	Regarding your habits, what would you be ready to change?
Diet	Where do you eat your meals?
	Who does the cooking?
	High-salt food: what do you know about it? How much do you consume?
	What is your point of view and what changes are you ready to make?
	For those with a body mass index ≥30: what are your diet mistakes (snack food, overeating) or diet troubles?
	For those with a body mass index ≤18 (adult patients) or 21 (elderly patients): what are your diet mistakes or diet troubles?

The general practitioners received an education booklet covering the following topics: knowledge/attitudes/motivation; clinical alarm signs; physical activity; and diet. There was no predetermined order – each theme was evoked depending on patients’ needs and based on the first education session