The effect of the Continuous Care Model on treatment adherence in patients with myocardial infarction: a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Background: Adherence to treatment is one of the behaviours associated with successful outcomes following a myocardial infarction, which leads to successful treatment in the disease. Aims: This study aimed to investigate the effect of the Continuous Care Model (CCM) on treatment adherence in patients with myocardial infarction. Methods: This was a randomised controlled trial performed on 82 patients with myocardial infarction. Convenience sampling was used to select the participants, and then they were allocated into two groups by the stratified random method. In the intervention group, a CCM was implemented. In the intervention group, 4–6 educational sessions (1–2 h) were conducted during one month in the form of spoken questions and answers about the presented subjects. The control group received routine care. A questionnaire of demographic information and treatment adherence was completed by samples in the two groups, intervention and control, before and immediately after training and after follow-up. Results: The results of this study showed that treatment adherence was significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group immediately after training and after the follow-up phase (three months) (p < 0.001). Also, diet, drug and physical activity adherence were significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group immediately after training and after follow-up (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Implementation of CCM led to an increase in adherence to the treatment in patients with myocardial infarction. Therefore, it is suggested that this model could be used as a nursing intervention to increase treatment adherence in cardiac-rehabilitation programmes.