Nurse-led multi-component behavioural activation programme to improve health outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation: a mixed-methods study and feasibility analysis

Assessing the impact of atrial fibrillation self-care interventions: A systematic review

This systematic review evaluates the efficacy of self-care interventions for atrial fibrillation (AF), focusing on strategies for maintenance, monitoring, and management applied individually or in combination. Adhering to the 2020 PRISMA guidelines, the search strategy spanned literature from 2005 to 2023, utilizing keywords and subject headings for "atrial fibrillation" and "self-care" combined with the Boolean operator AND. The databases searched included Medline, Embase, and CINAHL. The initial search, conducted on February 17, 2021, and updated on May 16, 2023, identified 5160 articles, from which 2864 unique titles and abstracts were screened. After abstract screening, 163 articles were reviewed in full text, resulting in 27 articles being selected for data extraction; these studies comprised both observational and randomized controlled trial designs. A key finding in our analysis reveals that self-care interventions, whether singular, dual, or integrated across all three components, resulted in significant improvements across patient-reported, clinical, and healthcare utilization outcomes compared to usual care. Educational interventions, often supported by in-person sessions or telephone follow-ups, emerged as a crucial element of effective AF self-care. Additionally, the integration of mobile and web-based technologies alongside personalized education showed promise in enhancing outcomes, although their full potential remains underexplored. This review highlights the importance of incorporating comprehensive, theory-informed self-care interventions into routine clinical practice and underscores the need for ongoing innovation and the implementation of evidence-based strategies. The integration of education and technology in AF self-care aligns with the recommendations of leading health organizations, advocating for patient-centered, technology-enhanced approaches to meet the evolving needs of the AF population.

Does coping style mediate the relationship between knowledge and psychosocial outcomes in women with atrial fibrillation?

Introduction

In patients affected by atrial fibrillation (AF) disease-specific knowledge and coping style may be associated with psychosocial well-being. This study aimed to determine if coping style (problem-focused, emotion-focused, avoidance-focused) mediated the relationship between patient knowledge and three psychosocial outcomes (anxiety, depression and life satisfaction).

Methods

In 2021 a total of 188 women with reported AF, and ages ranging from 18 to 83 years (mean 48.7, sd 15.5 years), completed an online questionnaire consisting of sociodemographic, clinical and AF knowledge questions and psychosocial instruments (Anxiety and depression, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HADS) scale; life satisfaction, Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS); and coping style (Brief COPE). Using Jamovi statistical software three individual mediational models (for anxiety, depression and life satisfaction) were constructed assessing the direct and indirect relationships between knowledge, coping style and each psychosocial outcome. Age was a covariate in each model.

Results

The mediation analyses demonstrated significant direct negative associations between AF knowledge and HADS anxiety and depression and positive associations with SWLS. There were also direct associations between each of the three coping styles and the three psychosocial outcomes. There were significant indirect effects of coping style between AF knowledge and each of the three outcomes confirming partial mediation effects.

Discussion

These findings highlight the crucial role of coping style in mediating the association between AF knowledge and psychosocial outcomes. As such, interventions aimed at increasing patient knowledge of AF may be more effective if adaptive problem-solving coping strategies are also demonstrated to these patients. Additionally, modification of maladaptive coping strategies as part of the psychological management of patients with AF is highly recommended.

Does a nurse-led interventional program improve clinical outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation? A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Being the most common type of arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation (AF) is progressively increasing with an annual rate of 5 million new cases. Recent guidelines highlight the importance of using collaborative multidisciplinary teams in order to improve outcomes during management of patients with AF. A nurse-led program including a nurse-directed education, counselling and intervention has shown to improve patients' outcomes in candidates with AF. In this analysis, we aimed to systematically compare the clinical outcomes observed in patients with AF who were assigned to a nurse-led interventional program versus a usual care group.

METHODS

EMBASE, MEDLINE, Http://www.

CLINICALTRIALS

gov , Web of Science; Google Scholar and Cochrane databases were the data sources. The clinical outcomes were considered as the endpoints in this study. This is a meta-analysis, and the statistical analysis was conducted by the RevMan software (version 5.4). Risk ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to represent the data after statistical analysis.

RESULTS

Six studies with a total number 2916 participants were included whereby 1434 participants were assigned to a nurse-led intervention and 1482 participants were assigned to the usual care group. Our results showed that participants with AF who were assigned to the nurse-led interventional group had a significantly lower risk of composite endpoints (RR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.70-0.96; P = 0.01), heart failure (RR: 0.66, 95% CI: 0.47-0.92; P = 0.02), atrial fibrillation (RR: 0.77, 95% CI: 0.63-0.94; P = 0.01) and re-admission (RR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.62-0.99; P = 0.04). However, the risks of all-cause mortality (RR: 0.86, 95% CI: 0.68-1.09; P = 0.21), cardiac death (RR: 0.67, 95% CI: 0.33-1.39; P = 0.28), myocardial infarction (RR: 0.70, 95% CI: 0.35-1.42; P = 0.33), stroke (RR: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.44-1.26; P = 0.28), all bleeding events (RR: 1.11, 95% CI: 0.81-1.53; P = 0.51) and major bleeding events (RR: 0.91, 95% CI: 0.56-1.49; P = 0.71) were not significantly different.

CONCLUSIONS

The nurse-led interventional program significantly improved composite endpoints including heart failure and the recurrence of AF, resulting in a significantly lower admission rate compared to the usual care group. However, nurse-led interventional program did not affect mortality, stroke, myocardial infarction and bleeding events. Based on our current results, a nurse-led interventional programs apparently could be beneficial in patients with AF. Future larger trials would be able to confirm this hypothesis.