Table 1.

Characteristics of patients and family members

Characteristics		Family
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Patient	Sex	Male	Male	Male	Male	Male	Female	Female	Male
	Age (years)	58	65	74	76	60	60	65	70
	Marital status	Married	Married	Married	Married	Married	Married	Married	Married
	Work	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
	Duration of HF (months)	10	12	24	12	6	5	12	18
	NYHA classification	I	I	II	II	II	II	II	II
	Aetiology of HF	IHD	IHD	IHD	IHD	IHD	IHD	IHD	IHD
	LVEF %	40	40	40	40	20	40	30	35
	Comorbidity	MI	RA, HTN	HTN, hearing loss	MI, HTN	MI	MI, HTN	MI, DM	MI
	Years living in Denmark	28	29	28	30	30	30	27	30
Family member	Sex	Female	Female	Female	Female	Female	Male	Female	Female
	Age (years)	53	60	65	68	52	65	35	63
	Marital status	Married	Married	Married	Married	Married	Married	Married	Married
	Work	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
	Relation to patient	Spouse	Spouse	Spouse	Spouse	Spouse	Spouse	Daughter	Spouse

DM, diabetes mellitus; HF, heart failure; HTN, hypertension; IHD, ischaemic heart disease; LVEF, left ventricle ejection fraction; MI, myocardial infarction; NYHA, New York Heart Association classification of heart failure; RA, rheumatoid arthritis.