Effect of group visits on health condition among follow-up patients with chronic heart failure / 中国实用护理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the effect of group visits on health condition among follow-up patients with chronic heart failure.Methods:Totally 126 outpatient follow-up patients with heart failure were divided into intervention group and control group by random number table from 2018 to 2019. The intervention group consisted of 63 cases and control group consisted of 59 cases. The intervention lasted 6 months. The intervention group received group visits, while the control group received routine outpatient follow-up. Medication adherence, quality of life and heart failure related indicators were evaluated at baseline and after 6 months of intervention.Results:At 6 months after intervention, the scores of medication adherence, total quality of life, body, emotion and others dimensions of the intervention group were (5.79±1.38), (30.11±8.22), (12.65±5.53), (5.24±4.57) and (12.22±4.76) points. These scores of the control group were (5.31±1.09), (37.26±9.02), (15.87±5.21), (7.03±5.14), (14.36±5.54) points. The differences between the two groups were statistically significant ( t values were -4.581-2.161, P<0.05 or 0.01). The BNP and proportion of New York Heart Association (NYHA) I the intervention group were (180.87±174.92) ng/L and 84.1% (53/63). These indicators of the control group were (351.02±268.13) ng/L and 67.8% (40/59). The differences between the two groups were statistically significant ( t value was -4.177, χ2 value was 4.484, P<0.01 or 0.05). Conclusions:Group visits program is an effective management mode to provide intensive patient education and foster peer support, improving medication adherence and quality of life of follow-up patients with heart failure.