Effectiveness of a multicentre randomized controlled trial with three different nurse-led intervention management programmes for patients with heart failure: the main results of the MEETinCY study.

Aims: A single-blinded, multicentred randomized controlled trial (RCT) was employed to examine the effectiveness of a 3-month telephone follow-up, a telephone follow-up with education before discharge, or education only before discharge on the heart failure (HF) knowledge, HF self-care management, and health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) in patients with HF by a nurse specialist.

Methods and results: This is a multicentre RCT with three different intervention groups (IGs) and one control group. Participants in the first IG received education on HF self-management principles before discharge. The second IGs were enrolled to a 3-month telephone follow-up educational programme in addition to the pre-discharge educational session. The third IG received the telephone follow-up intervention only for 3 months. A total of 357 patients with HF were enrolled to the study of whom 262 participants completed the intervention. Outcome measures included HF-related QoL, HF self-care, and HF-related knowledge. Intervention effects were analysed using the Cohen d (rm) coefficient for repeated measurements and ANCOVA. There was a significant improvement in the physical dimension of the HR-QoL (F = 2.7, df = 3, P = 0.046) between the control group and in-person education group. In HF-related self-care, the telephone component alone or in combination with in-person education led to greater improvement than the control group (F = 3, df = 3, P = 0.034). Self-care practices were improved in the education and telephone arms as compared to the control group (P = 0.002).

Conclusion: Education and telephone support on self-care management may improve the physical dimension of HR-QoL.

Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01905176.