Heart Failure Patients’ Adherence to Hybrid Comprehensive Telerehabilitation and Its Impact on Prognosis Based on Data from TELEREH-HF Randomized Clinical Trial

<b>(1) Background</b> Adherence to treatment guidelines in heart failure (HF) patients is of major prognostic importance, but thorough implementation of guidelines in routine care remains insufficient. Introducing hybrid comprehensive telerehabilitation (HCTR) consisting of telecare, tel...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ewa Piotrowicz, Michael Pencina, Grzegorz Opolski, Wojciech Zaręba, Maciej Banach, Ilona Kowalik, Piotr Orzechowski, Renata Główczyńska, Dominika Szalewska, Sławomir Pluta, Zbigniew Kalarus, Robert Irzmański, Ryszard Piotrowicz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-03-01
Series:Applied Sciences
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/5/2595
Description
Summary:<b>(1) Background</b> Adherence to treatment guidelines in heart failure (HF) patients is of major prognostic importance, but thorough implementation of guidelines in routine care remains insufficient. Introducing hybrid comprehensive telerehabilitation (HCTR) consisting of telecare, telerehabilitation, and remote monitoring of implantable devices might be an option to improve adherence to recommendation and can affect the prognosis. The purpose is to investigate the association of adherence to HCTR with mortality and hospitalization. <b>(2) Methods</b> This analysis formed part of TELEREH-HF multi-center, randomized trial that enrolled 850HF patients (NYHA I-III;LVEF ≤ 40%). Patients were randomized 1:1 to 9-week HCTR (1 week in hospital and 8 weeks at home) plus usual care or usual care only and followed-up for 14 to 26 months. This analysis focuses on the HCTR group. Adherent patients were those who adhered both to the number of training sessions prescribed and to the duration of the prescribed cycle by at least 80%; non-adherent patients were those who adhered<20% to the prescribed number of training sessions and their duration. The remaining patients were classified as partially adherent. <b>(3) Results</b> There were 350 (88.4%) adherent patients, 39 (9.8%) partially adherent patients, and 7 (1.8%) non-adherent patients. There were 46 deaths during follow-up. Non-adherence or partial adherence was associated with higher risk of cardiovascular (CV) mortality (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.62, <i>p</i> = 0.021); all-cause mortality or HF hospitalization (HR = 1.71, <i>p</i> = 0.038); CV mortality or HF hospitalization (HR = 1.89, <i>p</i> = 0.014). <b>(4) Conclusions</b> The adherence to HCTR was high. Adherence to HCTR was associated with improved prognosis for CV mortality and the reduction in the combined outcome of CV mortality or HF hospitalization.
ISSN:2076-3417