The impact of health education on treatment outcomes in heart failure patients

Abstract

Background. In 2016 heart failure (HF) affected between 600,000 and 700,000 people in Poland being one of the most common causes of hospitalization and death. Health education is an elements of patient treatment aimed at improving the level of self-care and adherence to the treatment recommendations. Objectives. To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of the available literature in order to determine the role of health education in HF treatment and its impact on outcomes in patients with chronic HF. Material and methods. A search was performed in the MEDLINE, PubMed and Scopus databases from January 2010 to January 2019 for the impact of health education on treatment outcomes in HF patients. Results. A total of 16 studies from 12 countries on 5 continents were analyzed. The meta-analysis focused on the impact of education on outcomes in 944 study group patients. We found that the overall impact of education on outcomes was positive (+1 standard deviation (SD); 95% confidence interval (95% CI) >0). After education was provided, the target patients improved in terms of self-care (mean change (MC) = 13.49; p = 0.003; I2 = 99.47%). Self-care also improved in the controls, but the improvement was less marked (MC = 9.56; p = 0.001; I2 = 98.33%). No impact of education on quality of life (QoL) was confirmed (95% CI = 0). Conclusions. The greatest benefit of education is seen in terms of adherence to pharmaceutical treatment and self-care, while QoL was not associated with education.