Journal of clinical medicine
A Self-Care Mobile Application for Patients with Acute Decompensated Heart Failure During the COVID-19 Pandemic
By Essa H, Lip GYH and Sankaranarayanan R.
Abstract
Background
Mobile health applications may support self-care following acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF), particularly when conventional healthcare contact is limited. We evaluated the integration of the Aintree Heart Failure Passport (AHFP) application into a specialist ambulatory ADHF pathway and described self-care behaviour, medication adherence and 30-day heart failure rehospitalisation among app users.
Methods
This prospective, single-centre observational study included consecutive patients treated with day-case intravenous diuretics in a consultant-led ambulatory heart failure unit at a UK university hospital between March 2020 and July 2021. Patients with access to a smartphone were offered the AHFP application. Self-care behaviour and medication adherence were assessed two weeks after presentation using the nine-item European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale (EHFScB-9) and five-item Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS-5), respectively. Thirty-day HF hospitalisation among application users was compared with a separate cohort of hospitalised HF patients recorded in the National Heart Failure Audit (73/382, 19.1%). This inpatient cohort was used as a contextual benchmark rather than a matched control group.