Health Literacy in Patients With Congestive Heart Failure

Summary

The primary aim of this project is to test the efficacy of an inpatient congestive heart failure (CHF) educational intervention compared with usual care among inpatients at Griffin Hospital, who are largely drawn from the population of the Naugatuck Valley in Connecticut.

The educational intervention will utilize:

* written educational materials suitable for patients with low health literacy - alternatives to written materials (e.g., video- and audiotapes) that may more effectively communicate health information to elderly patients and those with low health literacy
* a one-on-one educational session with a nurse patient educator. The educational session will use as its framework guidelines provided by the America Medical Association (AMA) to improve communication between healthcare providers and low health literacy patients. The investigators hypothesize that CHF patients who receive this educational intervention will have fewer hospital readmissions or deaths than the usual care group. The investigators further hypothesize that patients with low health literacy will derive more benefit from the intervention than patients with higher literacy.

The secondary aims of the project are to:

* assess whether patients in the education and usual care groups differ on post-discharge CHF knowledge and on satisfaction with hospital care. Compared with usual care, the investigators hypothesize that CHF patients who receive the educational intervention will have better knowledge of CHF and will be more satisfied with the care they received in the hospital.

The potential impact of the proposed project may be to increase disease knowledge and health literacy, and improve adherence to CHF treatments. This, in turn, may contribute to improved medical outcomes and reduced hospital readmissions for CHF patients. In addition, if this preliminary study provides evidence of a promising educational intervention suitable for patients with low health literacy, th investigators will endeavor to test the intervention in ethnically diverse populations throughout Connecticut.

Conditions

• Congestive Heart Failure

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Health Literacy-Tailored Education

Intervention group receives a visit from a nurse educator who, using the teach back method of educating patients, provides counseling on their disease methods of controlling their disease. A video is also viewed to reinforce the materials.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Connecticut Health Foundation

  collaborator OTHER

• Griffin Hospital

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• NAVITHA WODDOR, MD MPH · Griffin Hospital

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

50 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2007-03-31

Primary Completion

2010-12-31

Completion

2012-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations