Noninvasive Home Telemonitoring System for Heart Failure patients: A randomized Clinical Trial

YANICELLI, LUCÍA MARÍA; GOY, CARLA B.; VIVIANA DEL CARMEN GONZÁLEZ; GERARDO NICANOR PALACIOS; ERNESTO CARLOS MARTÍNEZ; MYRIAM CRISTINA HERRERA

JOURNAL OF TELEMEDICINE AND TELECARE

ROYAL SOC MEDICINE PRESS LTD

Lugar: LONDRES; Año: 2020

1357-633X

Introduction: The low quality of life in Heart Failure (HF) patients is related to low self-care and treatment adherence. Consequently, innovative strategies are needed to improve them.The objective of this work is to determine the effectiveness of the use of a Home Telemonitoring System (HTS) to improve self-care and treatment adherence of HF patients.Methods: A randomized clinical trial that compares the efficacy of an HTS ?intervention group (IG)- versus usual care ?control group (CG)- among HF outpatients over a 90-daysmonitoring period was carried out.The HTS consists of an App that collects measurements of different parameters on a daily basis and provides health education to the patients. The HTS processes data gathered and generates an alert if a risky situation arises.The outcomes observed were significant changes in patients? self-care (European HF Selfcare Behaviour Scale -EHFScB-), treatment adherence (Morisky Modify Scale -MMS-) and re-hospitalizations over the follow-up period.Results: 104 HF patients were screened; 40 met the inclusion criteria; only 30 completed the study. After the follow-up, intragroup analysis of the CG indicated a decrease in treatment adherence (P=0.02). The mean EHFScB overall score indicated an improvedself-care in IG patients (P=0.03) and a worsened self-care in CG (P=0.04) with a p-value of 0.004 in the intergroup analysis. Thanks to the HTS alerts, 2 re-hospitalizations were avoided.Discussion: This study demonstrated that the proposed HTS improves patient self-care when compared to usual care and has the potential to avoid re-hospitalizations, even considering patients with low literacy levels.