Pilot Trial of a Community Health Worker Intervention to Improve Heart Failure Care in Rural Haiti
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Intervention
- Not specified
- Conditions
- Heart Failure
- Sponsor
- Boston Medical Center
- Enrollment
- 30
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Acceptability of HF follow up program to Community Health Workers (CHWs)
- Status
- Completed
- Last Updated
- 5 months ago
Overview
Brief Summary
Evidence-based interventions to improve linkage and outcomes for heart failure (HF) patients requires input from stakeholders: patients, community health workers (CHWs), healthcare staff, and health system administrators.
In this research the investigators will assess a CHW intervention designed to improve linkage to care for HF patients. This intervention was systematically adapted for use in rural Haiti in a prior study using the Assessment, Decisions, Administration, Production, Topical Experts, Integration, Training staff, Testing (ADAPT-ITT) framework. The ADAPT-ITT framework provides 8 sequential phases to adapt interventions and programs to new target audiences. It has been applied successfully to the adaptation of several interventions for HIV among under-resourced communities leading to randomized clinical trials. With the first 6 steps of the ADAPT-ITT framework completed in a prior study, this protocol outlines the training and testing of the adapted CHW intervention.
In addition to assessing the feasibility, appropriateness, and acceptability of the adapted intervention through participants' feedback, the investigators will assess its efficacy in improving HF outcomes. The proposed intervention is targeted at both the patient domain - through improved peer support - and health system domain - by improving health system navigation.
Detailed Description
This is a clinical trial involving the training of 6 CHWs in a linkage-to-care intervention and the testing of the intervention on 30 HF patients. In a prior study, the ADAPT-ITT framework was used to adapt a CHW-based intervention for post-discharge HF patients in Haiti. This study represents the last two phases of the ADAPT-ITT framework: Training and Testing. The study population will include adult HF patients (\> 18 years of age), hospitalized for more than 48 hours, discharged from Hôpital-Universitaire de Mirebalais (HUM), without a prior clinic visit, living in Mirebalais Commune. Patients will be recruited for study participation shortly before discharge. A comparison group of 30 HF patients will be recruited and will not participate in the follow up care intervention. Those patients will be retrospectively identified from the medical record. The comparison group and will not receive any intervention. Six experienced CHWs will be trained to conduct the linkage to care intervention. The intervention will include study visits in the form of home visits and phone calls performed by CHWs during which they will remind patients about upcoming visits, ensure patient has sufficient medications, review medication schedule and provide education as needed.
Investigators
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- Not provided
Exclusion Criteria
- Not provided
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Acceptability of HF follow up program to Community Health Workers (CHWs)
Time Frame: 12 months
Acceptability of the HF follow up program to CHWs will be assessed using a 5-point Likert scale response to the question "Was it acceptable to have a CHW come to your home to educate you in your heart failure care and encourage clinic follow-up?" where 1=not acceptable, 5=very acceptable.
Appropriateness of HF follow up program to CHWs
Time Frame: 12 months
Appropriateness of HF follow up program to CHWs will be assessed using a 5-point Likert scale response to the question "Were you satisfied with the CHWs interactions with you?" where 1=not acceptable, 5=very acceptable.
Feasibility of HF follow up program to patients
Time Frame: 90 days
Feasibility of HF follow up program to patients will be assessed by the percent of invited eligible patients who consent to participate. The higher the percentage of consenting patients, the more feasible the program.
Feasibility of HF follow up program to CHWs
Time Frame: 90 days
Feasibility of HF follow up program to CHWs will be assessed by the percent of invited CHWs who complete the training. The higher the percentage, the more feasible the program.
Acceptability of HF follow up program to patients
Time Frame: 90 days
Acceptability of the HF follow up program to patients will be assessed using a 5-point Likert scale response to the question "Was it acceptable to have a CHW come to your home to educate you in your heart failure care and encourage clinic follow-up?" where 1=not acceptable, 5=very acceptable.
Acceptability of HF follow up program to nurses/doctors
Time Frame: 12 months
Acceptability of the HF follow up program to nurses/doctors will be assessed using a 5-point Likert scale response to the question "Was it acceptable to have a CHW come to your home to educate you in your heart failure care and encourage clinic follow-up?" where 1=not acceptable, 5=very acceptable.
Appropriateness of HF follow up program to nurses/doctors
Time Frame: 12 months
Appropriateness of HF follow up program to nurses/doctors will be assessed using a 5-point Likert scale response to the question "Were you satisfied with the CHWs interactions with you?" where 1=not acceptable, 5=very acceptable.
Appropriateness of HF follow up program to patients
Time Frame: 90 days
Appropriateness of HF follow up program to patients will be assessed using a 5-point Likert scale response to the question "Were you satisfied with the CHWs interactions with you?" where 1=not acceptable, 5=very acceptable.
Fidelity of HF follow up program
Time Frame: 90 days
Fidelity of HF follow up program will be assessed by the percent of home visit checklist items completed by CHWs. The higher the percentage, the greater the fidelity.
HF follow up program intervention components delivered
Time Frame: 90 days
Assessed by the number of interventions delivered based abstracted from the home visit checklist completed by the CHWs.
Completion of scheduled visits
Time Frame: 90 days
Assessed by the percent of scheduled visits that were completed from the CHW records.
Percent of visits with all home visit checklist items completed
Time Frame: 90 days
Assessed by dividing the number of visits with all home visit checklist items completed by the total number of visits.
Secondary Outcomes
- Linkage of HF patients(30 days)
- Retention of HF patients(90 days)
- Hospital readmission rate(90 days)
- Patient symptoms based on the New York Heart Association (NYHA) Classification(90 days)
- Patient quality of life assessed European Quality of Life 5D (EuroQol 5D)(30 days, 90 days)
- Symptoms and quality of life based on the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ)(30 days, 90 days)
- Mortality rate in HF patients(90 days)