A Quasi-Randomized Controlled Trial of an Integrated Healthcare Model for Patients with Coronary Heart Disease

An increasing number of coronary heart disease (CHD) patients with an aging population are demanding available and effective out-of-hospital continuous healthcare services. However, great efforts still need to be made to promote out-of-hospital healthcare services for better CHD secondary prevention. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a hospital-community-family (HCF)-based integrated healthcare model on treatment outcomes, treatment compliance, and quality of life (QoL) in CHD patients.

A quasi-randomized controlled trial was conducted at the Department of Cardiology, a tertiary A-level hospital, Wuhan, China from January 2018 to January 2020 in accordance with the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials guidelines. CHD patients were enrolled from the hospital and quasi-randomly assigned to either HCF-based integrated healthcare model services or conventional healthcare services. The treatment outcomes and QoL were observed at the 12-month follow-up. Treatment compliance was observed at the 1-month and 12-month follow-ups.

A total of 364 CHD patients were quasi-randomly assigned to either integrated healthcare model services (n = 190) or conventional healthcare services (n = 174). Treatment outcomes including relapse and readmission rate (22.6% vs 41.9%; relative risk [RR] = 0.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.40-0.74; p = 0.0031), the occurrence of major cardiovascular events (19.5% vs 45.4%; RR = 0.43; 95% CI, 0.30-0.59; p = 0.0023), complication rate (19.5% vs 35.0%; RR = 0.56; 95% CI, 0.39-0.79; p = 0.0042), and the control rate of CHD risk factors (p $$ 0.05, average p = 0.009) at the 12-month follow-up in the intervention group were better than those of the control group. There was no significant difference in treatment compliance at the 1-month follow-up between groups (p $$ 0.05, average p = 0.872). Treatment compliance at the 12-month follow-up in the intervention group, including correct medication, reasonable diet, adherence to exercise, emotional control, self-monitoring, and regular re-examination, was higher than that of the control group (p $$ 0.05, average p = 0.007). No difference was found in the compliance with smoking cessation and alcohol restriction at the 12-month follow-up between groups (p = 0.043). QoL at the 12-month follow-up in the intervention group was better than that of the control group (86.31 $$ 9.39 vs 73.02 $$ 10.70, p = 0.0048).

The integrated healthcare model effectively improves treatment outcomes, long-term treatment compliance, and QoL of patients, and could be implemented as a feasible strategy for CHD secondary prevention.