Evaluating the Effect of Monitoring Through Telephone (Tele-Monitoring) on Self-Care Behaviors and Readmission of Patients With Heart Failure After Discharge Publisher Pubmed



Negarandeh R¹ ; Zolfaghari M² ; Bashi N³ ; Kiarsi M⁴ Show Affiliations
Source: Applied Clinical Informatics Published:2019

Abstract

Background ?Heart failure is one of the serious cardiovascular diseases, which poses a global pandemic and places a heavy burden on health care systems worldwide. The incidence of this disease in Iran is higher than in other Asian countries. To reduce patients' complications, readmission rates, and health care expenditures, it is necessary to design interventions, which are culturally appropriate and based on community needs. Methods ?In 2016, a randomized clinical trial (IRCT2017010731804N1) was initiated to compare tailored tele-monitoring intervention with usual care. In total, 80 patients completed the study after a follow-up period of 8 weeks. The primary end point was heart failure self-care, which was measured using the Iranian version of the European Heart Failure self-care questionnaire. Secondary end points were heart failure related readmission rates. Results ?The mean scores for self-care behaviors of the two groups showed significant difference at the baseline (p = 0.045). The results of the analysis of covariance that was used to control the differences in the pretest scores of self-care behaviors showed that the difference between both groups after the intervention was still significant (p < 0.001). The percentage of patients' readmissions in the intervention group (20%) was less than that in the control group (42.2%); however, the results were not statistically significant (p = 0/066). Conclusion ?This study showed that tele-monitoring improved self-care behaviors in Iranian patients with heart failure but did not reduce their readmission rates. © 2019 Georg Thieme Verlag. All rights reserved.