Efficacy of team-based collaborative care for distressed patients in secondary prevention of chronic coronary heart disease (TEACH): study protocol of a multicenter randomized controlled trial

Sex and Psychosocial Differences in Acute Stress Symptoms Prior to Open-Heart Surgery

BACKGROUND

Acute stress symptoms can occur while cardiac patients await open-heart surgery (OHS). The distress leads to poor outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the association of sex and psychosocial factors (quality-of-life and character strengths).

METHOD

Our study cohort included 481 pre-OHS patients (female 42%; mean age 62 years). Medical indices/factors were obtained from the Society of Thoracic Surgeon's national database. Multiple regression analyses were performed following pre-planned steps and adjusting medical factors.

RESULTS

Our findings revealed that sex differences in trauma-related symptoms were associated with poor mental well-being, alongside comorbidities. Both mental well-being and comorbidity factors were directly related to acute stress symptoms, while dispositional optimism had an inverse association with this outcome.

CONCLUSION

To improve OHS outcomes, our findings suggest healthcare providers be attentive to pre-OHS acute stress symptoms, pay greater attention to the emotional well-being of their female patients, and develop supportive interventions to enhance personality strengths.

Needs of multimorbid heart failure patients and their carers: a qualitative interview study and the creation of personas as a basis for a blended collaborative care intervention

Introduction

Involving patients and carers in the development of blended collaborative care (BCC) interventions for multimorbid heart failure (HF) patients is recommended but rarely practised, and research on the patient perspective is scarce. The aim of this study is to investigate patients' and carers' care-related needs and preferences to better customize a novel international BCC intervention.

Methods

A qualitative study design using framework analysis was employed. The study was performed in accordance with the EQUATOR standards for reporting qualitative research (SRQR). Patients aged at least 65 years with HF and at least two other physical diseases as well as their carers completed semistructured interviews in Germany, Italy, and Denmark. Based on these interviews, personas (prototype profiles of patients and carers) were created.

Results

Data from interviews with 25 patients and 17 carers were analysed. Initially, seven country-specific personas were identified, which were iteratively narrowed down to a final set of 3 personas: (a) the one who needs and wants support, (b) the one who has accepted their situation with HF and reaches out when necessary, and (c) the one who feels neglected by the health care system. Carers identifying with the last persona showed high levels of psychological stress and a high need for support.

Discussion

This is the first international qualitative study on patients' and carers' needs regarding a BCC intervention using the creation of personas. Across three European countries, data from interviews were used to develop three contrasting personas. Instead of providing "one size fits all" interventions, the results indicate that BCC interventions should offer different approaches based on the needs of individual patients and carers. The personas will serve as a basis for the development of a novel BCC intervention as part of the EU project ESCAPE (Evaluation of a patient-centred biopSychosocial blended collaborative CAre Pathway for the treatment of multimorbid Elderly patients).

Integrated care for older multimorbid heart failure patients: protocol for the ESCAPE randomized trial and cohort study

ESCAPE

Evaluation of a patient-centred biopsychosocial blended collaborative care pathway for the treatment of multimorbid elderly patients.

THERAPEUTIC AREA

Healthcare interventions for the management of older patients with multiple morbidities.

AIMS

Multi-morbidity treatment is an increasing challenge for healthcare systems in ageing societies. This comprehensive cohort study with embedded randomized controlled trial tests an integrated biopsychosocial care model for multimorbid elderly patients.

HYPOTHESIS

A holistic, patient-centred pro-active 9-month intervention based on the blended collaborative care (BCC) approach and enhanced by information and communication technologies can improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and disease outcomes as compared with usual care at 9 months.

METHODS

Across six European countries, ESCAPE is recruiting patients with heart failure, mental distress/disorder plus ≥2 medical co-morbidities into an observational cohort study. Within the cohort study, 300 patients will be included in a randomized controlled assessor-blinded two-arm parallel group interventional clinical trial (RCT). In the intervention, trained care managers (CMs) regularly support patients and informal carers in managing their multiple health problems. Supervised by a clinical specialist team, CMs remotely support patients in implementing the treatment plan-customized to the patients' individual needs and preferences-into their daily lives and liaise with patients' healthcare providers. An eHealth platform with an integrated patient registry guides the intervention and helps to empower patients and informal carers. HRQoL measured with the EQ-5D-5L as primary endpoint, and secondary outcomes, that is, medical and patient-reported outcomes, healthcare costs, cost-effectiveness, and informal carer burden, will be assessed at 9 and ≥18 months.

CONCLUSIONS

If proven effective, the ESCAPE BCC intervention can be implemented in routine care for older patients with multiple morbidities across the participating countries and beyond.

[Long-term course of heart disease: How can psychosocial care be improved?]

Cardiovascular diseases, which primarily include coronary artery disease (CAD), heart failure (HF) and cardiac arrhythmias, are the leading causes of death in the European Union and responsible for most of the serious courses of coronary disease. Acute events are usually the focus of clinical attention. In contrast, there are hardly any structured care and therapy concepts for the long-term course of these diseases. Based on a literature review, this article provides an overview of the long-term consequences and long-term care of heart diseases. Deficits in the psychosocial care of patients and possible solutions are discussed.Patients with CAD often experience problems with medication adherence and compliance to behavioural recommendations due to inadequate long-term psychosocial care. Psychological comorbidities reduce the quality of life and are a driver for health-damaging behaviour. Patients with cardiac arrhythmias often get into a vicious circle of recurrent physical complaints interacting with anxiety and panic attacks and the associated use of outpatient, emergency, or inpatient care facilities. In the course of heart failure, a clinically significant growing number of patients are treated with antidepressants, the benefit of which is rather doubtful.The apparent deficits in long-term psychosocial care of cardiovascular disease and the quality of life of patients could be improved through the increased use of systematic collaborative care models by specialised care facilities with the involvement of general practitioners.

Application Effect of Meticulous Nursing on Community Elderly Patients with Coronary Heart Disease under the Background of Medical Treatment Partnerships

Objective

To explore the application effect of meticulous nursing on community elderly patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) under the background of medical treatment partnerships.

Methods

A total of 96 elderly CHD patients treated in the community from July 2019 to July 2020 were selected as the research objects and divided into the experimental group (n = 48) and control group (n = 48) by the medical personnel according to their admission order. Clinical routine nursing was performed to the patients in the control group, and meticulous nursing under the background of medical treatment partnerships was conducted to the patients in the experimental group, so as to evaluate their quality of life (QOL) and self-care agency after intervention by the Chinese Questionnaire on Quality of Life in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease (CQQC) and Exercise of Self-Care Agency (ESCA) scale.

Results

Compared with the control group after intervention, the patients in the experimental group presented significantly higher ESCA scores, HHI scores, and CQQC scores and longer 6 min walking distance (P < 0.001) and remarkably lower POMS scores (P < 0.001) and had obviously higher numbers of cases with various health-related actions (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

Meticulous nursing under the background of medical treatment partnerships is a reliable method for improving the QOL and mood state of community elderly CHD patients, which greatly promotes patients' self-care agency and expectation. Further research will be conducive to establishing a better solution for patients.

Efficacy of Blended Collaborative Care for Patients With Heart Failure and Comorbid Depression: A Randomized Clinical Trial

IMPORTANCE

Depression is often comorbid in patients with heart failure (HF) and is associated with worse clinical outcomes. However, depression generally goes unrecognized and untreated in this population.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether a blended collaborative care program for treating both HF and depression can improve clinical outcomes more than collaborative care for HF only and physicians' usual care (UC).

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

This 3-arm, single-blind, randomized effectiveness trial recruited 756 participants with HF with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (<45%) from 8 university-based and community hospitals in southwestern Pennsylvania between March 2014 and October 2017 and observed them until November 2018. Participants included 629 who screened positive for depression during hospitalization and 2 weeks postdischarge and 127 randomly sampled participants without depression to facilitate further comparisons. Key analyses were performed November 2018 to March 2019.

INTERVENTIONS

Separate physician-supervised nurse teams provided either 12 months of collaborative care for HF and depression ("blended" care) or collaborative care for HF only (enhanced UC [eUC]).

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

The primary outcome was mental health-related quality of life (mHRQOL) as measured by the Mental Component Summary of the 12-item Short Form Health Survey (MCS-12). Secondary outcomes included mood, physical function, HF pharmacotherapy use, rehospitalizations, and mortality.

RESULTS

Of the 756 participants (mean [SD] age, 64.0 [13.0] years; 425 [56%] male), those with depression reported worse mHRQOL, mood, and physical function but were otherwise similar to those without depression (eg, mean left ventricular ejection fraction, 28%). At 12 months, blended care participants reported a 4.47-point improvement on the MCS-12 vs UC (95% CI, 1.65 to 7.28; P = .002), but similar scores as the eUC arm (1.12; 95% CI, -1.15 to 3.40; P = .33). Blended care participants also reported better mood than UC participants (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System-Depression effect size, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.28 to 0.67) and eUC participants (0.24; 95% CI, 0.07 to 0.41), but physical function, HF pharmacotherapy use, rehospitalizations, and mortality were similar by both baseline depression and randomization status.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

In this randomized clinical trial of patients with HF and depression, telephone-delivered blended collaborative care produced modest improvements in mHRQOL, the primary outcome, on the MCS-12 vs UC but not eUC. Although blended care did not differentially affect rehospitalization and mortality, it improved mood better than eUC and UC and thus may enable organized health care systems to provide effective first-line depression care to medically complex patients.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02044211.

Characteristic analysis of clinical coronary heart disease and coronary artery disease concerning young and middle-aged male patients

BACKGROUND

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a type of coronary atherosclerotic heart disease. In recent years, the incidence of CHD has been increasing annually, with an increasing number of young patients. Severe CHD may cause severe myocardial ischemia or myocardial necrosis, which in turn may cause myocardial infarction and related complications that seriously affect the life and health of the patient.

AIM

To examine the coronary arteries and clinical features of young and middle-aged male patients with CHD.

METHODS

From February 2019 to January 2020, 110 male CHD patients admitted to our hospital were selected as research subjects and were divided into two groups by age: middle-aged group (n = 55) and young group (n = 55). The coronary arteries and clinical features of the patients were compared.

RESULTS

There were no significant differences in dyslipidemia, stroke history, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or triacylglycerol (P > 0.05) between the two groups. In the young group, age, diabetes, hypertension, smoking history, body mass index, family history of CHD, drinking history, fibrinogen, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol, and single-vessel disease were higher than those in the middle-aged group. Correspondingly, serum uric acid, hyperuricemia, myocardial infarction, Gensini score > 50, collateral circulation, multivessel disease, double vessel disease, involvement of the right coronary artery, and involvement of the left main coronary artery were lower in the young group than in the middle-aged group. The middle-aged group mainly suffered from a high Gensini score, implicating multiple arteries, whereas the young group was mainly affected by single-vessel disease. The between-group difference was significant (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

In CHD attacks, multiple coronary arteries are implicated in middle-aged male patients and single-vessel disease in young male patients.

[Update Psychocardiology]

Psychocardiological research has contributed a better understanding of mental health, psychosocial factors and quality of life of in patients with cardiovascular diseases. In this update of psychocardiology in 2021, stressful experiences in childhood and adolescence are found to increase the risk of type II diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease and stroke along the life course. Higher level of optimism, sense of purpose, and mindfulness can be possible protective factors for cardiovascular health. Summarizing the update of psychocardiological interventions, the effectiveness of team-based treatment ("blended collaborative care") in secondary prevention is currently being tested in Germany in the randomized, controlled TEACH multicenter trial of patients with coronary heart disease and distress. Interventions such as positive psychology and mindfulness training can lead to a significant reduction in anxiety, stress and depression in heart patients.