App Versus Logbook for Weight Monitoring and Help-Seeking Behavior in Heart Failure: A Single-Group...

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Digital Health
• Patient Self-Management

Background:

• Weight monitoring is crucial for heart failure (HF) self-care, enabling timely interventions to prevent hospitalizations.
• Mobile applications with prompts may enhance adherence to monitoring and promote earlier help-seeking compared to traditional paper logbooks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of the Fluid Heart Tracker App versus a paper logbook for weight monitoring in heart failure patients.
• To assess the impact on monitoring adherence, help-seeking behavior, and hospitalization rates.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental, multicenter study conducted in two consecutive 12-month phases.
• Phase 1 utilized a paper logbook, followed by Phase 2 with the Fluid Heart Tracker App.
• 136 participants completed both phases, with analyses comparing adherence, help-seeking, and hospitalization outcomes.

Main Results:

• Higher adherence was observed with the app (median: 346.5 days) compared to the logbook (median: 315 days).
• Help-seeking behavior significantly increased with the app (73.5%) versus the logbook (43.4%), reducing the longest delay from 14 to 2 days.
• While app use frequency did not affect hospitalization rates, overall hospitalizations and episodes declined significantly.

Conclusions:

• The Fluid Heart Tracker App demonstrates effectiveness in enhancing heart failure self-care.
• Integrating alert-enabled apps like Fluid Heart Tracker into HF programs can strengthen self-management and reduce preventable hospital admissions.