Promoting self-management through adherence among heart failure patients discharged from rural hospitals: A study protocol

Lufei Young, Sue Barnason, Do Van Do

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background Heart failure is one of the most prevalent chronic conditions in adults, leading to prolonged morbidity, repeated hospitalizations, and placing tremendous economic burden on the healthcare system. Heart failure patients discharged from rural hospitals, or primarily critical access hospitals, have higher 30-day readmission and mortality rates compared to patients discharged from urban hospitals. Self-management improves heart failure patients' health outcomes and reduces re-hospitalizations, but adherence to self-management guidelines is low. We propose a home based post-acute care service managed by advanced practice nurses to enhance patient activation and lead to the improvement of self-management adherence in heart failure patients discharged from rural hospitals. Objective This article describes the study design and research methods used to implement and evaluate the intervention. Method Our intervention is a 12-week patient activation (Patient AcTivated Care at Home [PATCH]) to improve self-management adherence. Patients were randomized into two parallel groups (12-week PATCH intervention + usual care vs. usual care only) to evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention. Outcomes were measured at baseline, 3 and 6 months. Discussion This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a rural theory based, advance practice nurse led, activation enhancing intervention on the self-management adherence in heart failure patients residing in rural areas. Our expectation is to facilitate adherence to self-management behaviors in heart failure patients following discharge from rural hospitals and decrease complications and hospital readmissions, leading to the reduction of economic burden. Clinical Trial Registration Information: ClinicalTrials.gov; https://register.clinicaltrials.gov/ NCT01964053

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number317
Pages (from-to)317
Number of pages1
JournalF1000Research
Volume3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Adherence
  • Heart failure
  • Patient activation
  • Self-management

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Immunology and Microbiology
  • Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics(all)

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