[Patient education program in chronic heart failure: assessment at one year in 81 patients]. / Education thérapeutique dans l'insuffisance cardiaque en milieu libéral: évaluation à 1 an chez 81 patients.

Disease management programs are implemented to manage heart failure. By means of a phone survey, using a standardized questionnaire, we aimed to evaluate the benefit at one year of a private practice disease management program in patients with heart failure. Among the 87 patients who had taken part in the program, six had died, so 81 (aged 70.8 +/- 10 years) were evaluated. Among those, 51 had been hospitalized at least once because of heart failure prior to entering the program, and 7 patients were hospitalized afterwards. The surveyed patients appeared to check more efficiently their weight and lower limbs edema (78.4%) than their heart rate, blood pressure (48.7%) and respiratory rate (5.4%). Regarding compliance with guidelines provided during the program sessions, it appeared that the patients followed better dietary guidelines (91.9%) than guidelines involving physical activity (44.6%) and kinesiotherapy (12.2%). In the end 72.6% among the surveyed felt that the disease management program was effective in helping them manage their heart failure.