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Major Outcomes in Elderly Patients With Self-Management of Oral Anticoagulation (SPOG60+)

M

Medical University of Graz

Status and phase

Completed
Phase 4

Conditions

Long-Term Oral Anticoagulated Patients

Treatments

Behavioral: 1 hour education - afterwards physician leaded OAC control
Behavioral: educational program for the self-management of OAC

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other
Industry

Identifiers

NCT00560911
SPOG60+

Details and patient eligibility

About

Self-management is safe and reliable in patients with long-term oral anticoagulation (OAC). However, no study has yet assessed the safety and efficacy of OAC self-management in elderly patients with major thromboembolic and haemorrhagic complications as primary outcomes.

In this multi-centre, open, randomised controlled trial, patients aged 60 years or will be randomised into a self-management or routine care group and followed up for at least two years.

The primary hypothesis of the study is that self-management of oral anticoagulation is superior compared to routine control in terms of reducing thromboembolic events requiring hospitalisation and all major bleeding complications as the primary endpoint.

Full description

Oral anticoagulation (OAC) has been shown to be highly effective in preventing thromboembolic complications in patients for whom it is indicated. Numerous studies have documented that elderly patients seem to benefit most from OAC therapy. Atrial fibrillation (AF), the incidence of which increases with age and approaches 10% for individuals aged ≥ 80 years, carries the main risk for stroke, and among elderly patients without antithrombotic therapy,

Despite its proven benefit, numerous studies have reported reluctance in prescribing OAC due to a variety of barriers, especially in the elderly. Risk of haemorrhage, which is in fact twice as great in those over 70 years of age as in younger patients, is one of the major determinants of refusal to prescribe OAC therapy. The risk of stroke rises steeply in patients with atrial fibrillation when INR values are less than 1.8 and INR values greater than 4 to 5 are rapidly associated with increased bleeding rates. Due to relatively small therapeutic ranges, the reality is often that only a small percentage of the INR values have been found to be within the target range, which can be low as 29% of INR measurements, as seen in routine care patients prior to participation in a randomised self-management programme study.

One way to improve OAC care is by introducing patients' self-management of OAC therapy. In this context it is important to differentiate between INR self-testing alone, and full self-management. Self-management includes self-adaptation of the anticoagulation treatment based on self-monitoring results after the patients have participated in a structured instruction and treatment programme.

Our study aims to provide answers to this important medical question by examining elderly patients receiving long-term anticoagulation treatment and randomised into self-management versus routine-care groups, with thromboembolic and haemorrhagic complications as primary outcomes.

Enrollment

216 patients

Sex

All

Ages

60+ years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

  • long-term anticoagulation
  • either with phenprocoumon or acenocoumarol
  • age ≥ 60 years
  • written informed consent

Exclusion criteria

  • previous participation in a self-management OAC programme
  • severe cognitive
  • terminal illness

Trial design

Primary purpose

Supportive Care

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Parallel Assignment

Masking

None (Open label)

216 participants in 2 patient groups

1Self-management
Other group
Treatment:
Behavioral: educational program for the self-management of OAC
2 Routine control
Other group
Treatment:
Behavioral: 1 hour education - afterwards physician leaded OAC control

Trial contacts and locations

3

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Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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