Abstract: Objective: To explore the preferences of elderly patients with Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) for self-management education materials, and to provide a basis for targeted guidance on the production and optimization of these materials. Methods: A purposive sampling method was employed to recruit 18 elderly patients with CHF who were hospitalized in the Geriatrics Department of a tertiary grade A hospital in Changchun from March to May 2024. Semi-structured interviews were conducted using the elements of Checklist for Easy-to-Understand Printed Materials in "Simply Put: a guide for creating easy-to-understand materials" as a framework, and Colaizzi seven-step analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: Four main themes and ten sub-themes of characteristic preferences were identified, including content needs, text expression, layout and design, and information delivery methods. Conclusion: The design of self-management education materials for elderly patients with CHF should focus on the pertinence of the education content, the popularity of the expression, the appropriateness of the presentation form, and the integration of both paper-based and electronic media.

Key words: Chronic Heart Failure, self-management, education materials, preferences, qualitative study