Education interventions in Chinese cardiac patients on health behaviours, disease-related knowledge, and health outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to summarize and synthesize the available evidence in adult Chinese cardiac patients to determine the effect of education interventions on health behaviours, disease-related knowledge, self-efficacy, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, health-related quality of life, morbidity, and mortality. Seven databases were searched from database inception until January 2020 for randomized controlled trials. Characteristics of education interventions were described and random-effects meta-analysis was performed where feasible. Overall, 18 randomized controlled trials were included in this systematic review and suggested that education interventions are effective in improving patients' physical activity, dietary habits, medication behaviour, disease-related knowledge, and health-related quality of life. Meta-analysis of two studies demonstrated benefit on physical activity (standardized mean difference [SMD] 1.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.06-1.48; participants = 422; I² = 0%), dietary habits (SMD 0.76, 95%CI 0.44-1.08; participants = 422; I² = 61%), and medication behaviour (mean difference [MD] 0.31, 95%CI 0.17-0.46; participants = 422; I² = 28%). This study supports the benefits of education interventions for adult Chinese cardiac patients on health behaviours, disease-related knowledge, and health-related quality of life. Future studies should characterize their education interventions in detail to facilitate reproducibility and comparison. This study identified the need for studies on the outcome of alcohol consumption and in Chinese immigrant populations.