J Heart Stroke | Volume 2, Issue 1 | Research Article | Open Access
Murphy Mary M*
Department of Cardiology, Fairfield University School of Nursing, USA
*Correspondance to: Murphy Mary M
Fulltext PDFBackground: In order to optimize one’s own health status, older adults with heart failure need to adhere to medication and lifestyle recommendations as well as recognize worsening dyspnea and fatigue. Telehealth can guide care, but inadequate compliance to program activities may adversely impact heart failure self-management. The aim of this 90-day retrospective study was to describe call compliance of older veterans with heart failure participating in one telehealth program.
Method: Data were collected for naturally occurring health status measures from the electronic telehealth and medical records of 187 older veterans with heart failure participating in the Care Coordination Home Telehealth program using either the Cardiocom® or Health Buddy® telehealth system to characterize participants and report call compliance.
Results: The average age of participants was 73.9 years, and 97.9% were male, 96.3% were non- Hispanic, 87.7% were White, and 93.6% had a history of hypertension. Total call compliance was 75.8% with no significant difference in overall compliance between users of the two telehealth systems. There was a sharp decline in daily compliance the first two weeks of program participation that leveled off for the remaining duration of the review period. Participant characteristics had no significant effect on compliance.
Conclusion: The finding of a rapid drop in compliance the initial weeks, followed by more sustained levels of participation, highlights that initial start-up is challenging for older adults with heart failure. Tailored training early in the program and reminders throughout the program may improve call compliance over time.
Murphy Mary M. Telehealth Call Compliance of Older Veterans with Heart Failure. J Heart Stroke. 2017; 2(1): 1017.