NCT01698242

The Congestive Heart Failure Adherence Redesign Trial

Reduction in Hospitalizations in Low-Income Patients With Heart Failure

• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 3
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 320 (actual)
• Sponsor: Lynda Powell, PhD, MEd · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to test whether a culturally sensitive self-management (SM) intervention, compared to an education only control, will reduce all-cause hospital days in patients with mild to moderate heart failure and household income less than $30,000 per year.

Detailed description

The purpose of the CHART research study is to assess the value of a novel multi-level intervention for low-income patients recently hospitalized with heart failure relative to providing education alone (both strategies are described in detail in the Intervention section below). The investigators refer to their novel intervention strategy as 'Enhanced Training' and their education-only strategy the investigators refer to as 'Enhanced Education'. These two strategies of participant follow-up will be assessed and compared by analyzing patient's all-cause hospital days over a 2.5-year follow-up period (the investigators note that, for patients with heart failure, the average number of such all-cause hospital days over a 2.5-year period has tripled over the past 25 years). The Enhanced Training strategy aims to improve patient receipt of evidence-based therapy by: 1) activating patients using a culturally sensitive approach that might better resonate with the investigators predominantly urban, African-American and Hispanic, target population; 2) providing timely and useful information to the primary care provider; and 3) promoting effective communication between patients and their primary care provider. The Enhanced Education strategy is less intrusive and aims to provide patients and primary care providers with appropriate educational materials via mail. The primary aims of this research study are to determine if Enhanced Training and/or Enhanced Education will improve: patient adherence to drug therapy and salt restriction, health care provider adherence to evidence-based guidelines, and patient functional capacity and quality of life. Secondary aims will include assessing impact of the interventions on CRP and BNP, which are two key biomarkers of heart failure progression.

Conditions

• Heart Failure, Congestive
• Cardiovascular Diseases
• Heart Diseases

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Enhanced Training	PCP-Level: A PCP randomized to the Enhanced Training (ET) group will receive: 1) a full and pocket sized copy of the current AHA Heart Failure (HF) Guidelines; 2) a summary of their patient's data collected at baseline, 6-month, and 30-month in-person study visits; and 3) an invitation to complete the CHART-designed online course in HF management for CME credit. Patient Level: The ET patient-level intervention uses Community Health Workers (CHWs) to assist the patient in learning self-management behaviors to reduce the risk of hospitalization. The key objectives are to: improve heart failure knowledge; encourage use of HF management tools; and facilitate development of self-management skills. Each participant receives at least: six AHA educational mailings, six monthly home visits, and 18 phone calls by CHWs within the first six months of the intervention. The CHW then conducts monthly telephone visits for the subsequent two years (for a total of 30 months of follow-up).
BEHAVIORAL	Enhanced Education	The Enhanced Education (EE) intervention follows a multi-level strategy in which both the patient and their PCP are intervened upon concurrently. The intervention provides nominal information through the mail. Randomization occurs at the PCP-level; patients are assigned to the EE group only if their PCP already has been randomized to this group. PCP Level: Upon randomization to the EE group each PCP will receive a full-sized copy of the current American Heart Association (AHA) Heart Failure Guidelines within thirty days after randomization. Patient Level: Upon their assignment to the EE group, patients will receive: Six AHA Tip-Sheet mailings (one Tip-Sheet to be mailed each of the first six months following group assignment); a telephone call, made by the CHART Research Assistant (RA), completed once during each of the first six months following group assignment and only to confirm that the patient received the Tip-Sheet mailing for that month.

Timeline

• Start date: 2011-05-01
• Primary completion: 2015-12-01
• Completion: 2015-12-01
• First posted: 2012-10-02
• Last updated: 2016-04-19

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States