A telehealth program benefits discharged patients with heart failure

Heart failure (HF) remains a major cause of mortality, hospitalisations, and poor quality of life. The mortality and readmission rate of HF patients after discharge are still high due to poor self-care and adherence, or inability to detect signs of deterioration. Telehealth programs may benefit a broad range of patients and reduce the suffering from HF. We aimed to investigate the impact of a 12-week telehealth program on outcomes among discharged patients with HF.

Study population was consisted of 425 patients discharged between Jan 2020 to Aug 2020. All enrolled participants were diagnosed as HF and underwent standard treatments. At discharge, they were randomised into the telehealth or control group. The intervention was based on telephone support biweekly. After 12-week follow-up, patients' outcomes including mortality, readmission, disease condition, adherence, self-care behaviours, and mental health were compared between the groups.

The telehealth program significantly improved the HF symptoms in patients (p < 0.001). Patients in telehealth group showed better adherence compared to control (p = 0.002). Moreover, the intervention enhanced patients' self-care skills, indicated by the increased ratio of individuals knowing how to evaluate the cardiac function (p = 0.009) and purchasing medicines (p = 0.03). In addition, the telehealth program significantly improved the mental health status of patients (p = 0.03).

The telehealth program is beneficial for improving HF symptoms, adherence, self-care skills and mental health status of discharged patients and support the future use of this program to manage patients and reduce the burden attributed to the condition.