Self-care educational intervention to reduce hospitalisations in heart failure: A randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: A variety of educational interventions have been implemented to assist patients with heart failure to maintain their own health, develop self-care behaviours and decrease readmissions.

AIMS: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a multimedia educational intervention for patients with heart failure in reducing unplanned hospital readmissions.

METHODS: The study, a randomised controlled trial in a large tertiary referral hospital in Australia, recruited 200 patients. Patients diagnosed with heart failure were randomly allocated 1:1 to usual education or a multimedia educational intervention. The multimedia approach began with an individual needs assessment to develop an educational plan. The educational intervention included viewing a DVD, and verbal discussion supported by a written manual with a teach-back evaluation strategy. The primary outcome was all-cause unplanned hospital readmission at 28 days, three months and 12 months post-recruitment. The secondary outcomes were changes in knowledge and self-care behaviours at three months and 12 months post-recruitment.

RESULTS: At 12 months, data on 171 participants were analysed. There were 24 participants who had an unplanned hospital readmission in the intervention group compared to 44 participants in the control group ( p=0.005). The self-care educational intervention reduced the risk of readmission at 12 months by 30% (relative risk: 0.703; 95% confidence interval: 0.548-0.903).

CONCLUSION: A targeted multimedia educational intervention can be effective in reducing all-cause unplanned readmissions for people with heart failure.