Status and phase
Conditions
Treatments
About
The emphasis of this grant is to investigate ways to educate patients, not only to improve their knowledge about medications and diet that are important for better outcomes in heart failure, but also to try to understand how patients' beliefs about medication and diet affect their behaviour and to what extent the investigators can help patients change.
Hypotheses: Heart failure patients who receive an enhanced educational intervention from their community pharmacist will:
Full description
INTRODUCTION: Heart Failure (HF) is one of the leading causes of hospitalization in Canada. While great advances have been made in the treatment of this disease, factors limiting the effectiveness of treatment include: poor compliance to dietary guidelines and medications, patients' lack of understanding about the impact of their disease, a lack of understanding of the impact of their lifestyle habits on their disease and the lack of systematic monitoring of patients following hospitalization. The objective of this trial of education and compliance in heart failure patients (TEACH) is to measure in patients with heart failure who are hospitalized and then discharged into the community, the impact of a comprehensive outpatient educational intervention on:
RESEARCH DESIGN: This is a prospective, randomized controlled clinical trial in patients who are admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of heart failure. Patients are stratified by reason for admission to the hospital. Stratum 1 includes patients whose primary reason for admission is HF and stratum 2 includes patients whose primary reason for hospital admission is not HF. The randomization will follow a cluster randomization design such that the community pharmacies will be randomized to deliver either an intervention (INTERVENTION) or usual care (CONTROL). Patients will be assigned to one of the two arms contingent upon which pharmacy they obtain most of their medications from. All patients receive standardized in-hospital education that has been previously validated (Eur J of HF, in press 2003). This education consists of educational booklets and videos on HF, health promotion and dietary information as well as relevant intervention from their community pharmacist that is aimed at helping the patients become more compliant with their medication and provide a framework of understanding that helps persistence.
HYPOTHESIS: HF patients who receive an enhanced educational intervention from their community pharmacist will:
OUTCOMES: Outcomes are collected every 3 months from baseline to end of one year. Events are tracked using a comprehensive database that we have developed and validated. Further utilization data will be provided by ICES data linkage facilities and patient interviews at the time of outcome assessment. In order to measure compliance we will continue to use electronic measures known as Track Caps (MEMS). The other indirect measure is pharmacy refill data that is provided to us from all community pharmacies the patient uses. This data will be interpreted using a validated formula developed by Steiner et al. (1996). Resource use and clinical outcomes are also collected.
IMPORTANCE: Medication used to treat HF and other chronic diseases can only work, if used. We are providing a validated education intervention to patients through an existing community infrastructure with an aim to reduce morbidity and mortality and have a positive impact on HRQoL within a cost-effective framework.
Enrollment
Sex
Ages
Volunteers
Inclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria
Loading...
Central trial contact
Eileen Campbell; Rosanna Turner
Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov
Clinical trials
Research sites
Resources
Legal