Is Web-only self-care education sufficient for heart failure patients?

Heart failure patients require complex, long-term care. Research shows that self-care education improves health outcomes of these patients. This study reports the results of a randomized trial which compared the effects of two remote educational interventions on heart failure patients' knowledge of self-care practices. The first group reviewed self-care content on a Web site and had email access to a cardiac nurse. The second group had access to the Web site, and participated in four telephone-based sessions with the cardiac nurse. The test scores of both groups significantly improved following the intervention. However, the post-intervention test scores of the group that included telephone sessions were significantly higher than the scores for the group that had access to the Web site only. These results show a benefit to learning of a teleconferencing intervention that is over and above the benefit of an intervention based on Web information and email access alone.