Evaluation of the effectiveness of the healthy heart tracker on heart failure self-care.

Abstract

We evaluated the effectiveness of a newly designed patient education booklet, the Health Heart Tracker (HHT), in promoting Heart Failure Self-Care (HFSC) behaviors compared to usual patient discharge handouts. We conducted a quasi-experimental, comparative two-group study using patients admitted for HF to four intermediate care units. The HHT was instituted on two units; patients on the other units served as control. We analyzed HFSC measured prior to HF discharge education and at two and six weeks post discharge using repeated measures ANOVA. Eighty-four 84 patients completed the study. The sample was 72.6 (+ 12.9) years old, white (75%), educated, and retired (85.8%). All HFSC behaviors improved significantly over time, but there were no significant time by group interactions in HFSC maintenance, symptom perception, and confidence. A notable increase in HFSC management in the HHT group between baseline and 2 weeks was evident, but not sustained to 6 weeks. A focused, singular intervention in the form of a patient education booklet designed specifically to improve HFSC did not significantly improve self-care behaviors over time compared to a control group. More work is needed to determine optimal written resources for patients with HF.