Screening Versus Routine Practice in Detection of Atrial Fibrillation in the Elderly Population of Lieto

Not Applicable

• Conditions: Atrial Fibrillation; Stroke
• Interventions: Other: Subject education to pulse palpation

• Registration Number: NCT01721005
• Lead Sponsor: University of Turku

Brief Summary

The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of patient education on feeling the own pulse irregularity in the elderly population of Lieto.

Prevalence of atrial fibrillation (AF) rises with age. Subjects have often symptoms like palpitation and discomfort but especially in elderly population there's significant quantity of persons who don't feel any symptoms and fail to seek for medical care for stroke prevention.

The main objectives in this study are to find out the prevalence of AF in the elderly population of Lieto, to assess the feasibility and reability of patient education on feeling one's pulse irregularity and the affect to the quality of life of the participating subjects and monitoring the possible increased burden to the public health care system.

The study contains two office visits with specified learning session and long-term phone-call follow-up.

Detailed Description

The main objectives in this study are to find out the prevalence of AF in the elderly population of Lieto, to assess the feasibility of patient education on feeling one's pulse irregularity and the affect to the quality of life of the participating subjects and monitoring the possible increased burden to the public health care system.

The study contains two office visits with specified learning session and long-term phone-call follow-up. A specially trained nurse will initially give a 10 min education on pulse palpation to each person and evaluate their capacity to learn pulse palpation. During followup visits the compliance of the patient and possible new arrhythmias plus quality of life issues are recorded and their ability of pulse palpation is evaluated by artificial hand where various kinds of pulses are transmitted.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2012-04
• Study First Submitted: 2012-10-26
• Study First Submitted QC: 2012-11-01
• Study First Posted: 2012-11-02
• Status Verified: 2014-05
• Last Update Submitted: 2014-05-07
• Last Update Posted: 2014-05-08
• Primary Completion: 2016-11
• Study Completion: 2017-12

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: UNKNOWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 200

Inclusion Criteria

• patient aged 75 or over
• inhabitant of Lieto
• willing to participate

Exclusion Criteria

• chronic atrial fibrillation
• ongoing anticoagulant treatment
• permanent institutional care

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: SINGLE_GROUP

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
pulse palpation education	Subject education to pulse palpation	The subject is educated to pulse palpation by registered cardiac nurse. The education time is limited to 10 minutes and done according preplanned education model

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The willingness to the pulse palpation and competence independently learn to feel own pulse.	1 month control visit	Based on learning session evaluated by nurse and objective evaluation of the learned skills by pulse-arm device and patient's pulse diary

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Number of patients with new atrial fibrillation detected during the study	At 1 year followup	During the 1 year followup visit information on atrial fibrillation is gathered form the patients records and by interview

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Härkätie community health center; 🇫🇮 Lieto, Finland