Improving Medication Adherence Using Family-focused and Literacy-sensitive Strategies in Patients With Heart Failure
Jia-Rong Wu
Summary
People with heart failure who do not take their medications as prescribed are at high risk of complications leading to hospitalization, death and poor quality of life. In the proposed intervention, nurses will use easy-to-understand language to coach patients and their care partners to help them work together and build skills to overcome their individual barriers to adherence in order to 1) improve and sustain patient medication adherence; 2) reduce hospitalization; 3) improve quality of life. If effective, this intervention will support long-term medication adherence, thus reducing hospitalizations related to heart failure and quality of life.
Description
Medication adherence is thought by many providers and researchers to be the most important self-care behavior, yet it is also the most problematic. Poor medication adherence can cause poor quality of life (QoL), hospitalization, and death. In the United States, approximately 125,000 deaths per year are due to poor medication adherence and up to 50% of heart failure (HF) patients are re-hospitalized within 6 months of a previous HF exacerbation and one of the most common causes is poor medication adherence. Lifelong and usually complex medication regimens are needed for patients with HF, yet 40…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria - Patient Participants: * confirmed diagnosis of heart failure (HF), either systolic or diastolic HF * ave suboptimal medication adherence * have a care partner (CP) (either spouse, daughter/son, partner, other relative, friend) who is identified by the patient as the person most involved in HF care * willingness to have a CP be involved in their medication taking * have undergone evaluation of HF and prescribed stable doses of HF medications for at least 3 months * live in a setting where the patient is responsible for their ow medication administration * willing to use th…
Interventions
- BehavioralFamLit
The FamLit (Family-focused and Literacy-sensitive strategy) is an interactive, multi-component intervention supported by the FamLit intervention Guide, including both spoken and printed materials written at a 4th-grade reading level for HF patients and their primary CPs.Three constructs guide the intervention, based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB): 1) develop patient and CP positive attitudes through HF instruction and teach-back; 2) form positive subjective norms through coaching to improve patient and CP communication, support, and teamwork; and 3) increase perceived behavioral control through coaching and role-playing to empower patients and CPs to overcome individual barriers to adherence. This intervention also includes use of the SimpleMed+ electronic pillbox.
- BehavioralAttention Control
Participants in this group will talk with an interventionist to discuss general health. This intervention also includes use of the SimpleMed+ electronic pillbox.
Location
- Jia-Rong WuLexington, Kentucky