Participatory Patient Care Planning in Primary Care: Effectiveness and Feasibility in Patients With Hypertension, Ischemic Heart Disease or Diabetes

In the aging population, the prevalence of chronic diseases and multimorbidity has become common. Therefore, the planning and coordination of care have become more important. However, it is not known what kind of treatment plan should be and what kind of patients would benefit most of it.

This research focuses on the participatory patient care planning in primary health care. In general, the participatory patient care planning (PPCP) aims to engage patients in self-care, to improve the collaboration between patients and professionals and to improve the use of resources. The present study investigates the feasibility and effectiveness of the PPCP.

The specific research questions of the present study are: Does the PPCP have an impact on the patient's quality of life? Does the PPCP improve the quality of care in management of chronic diseases? Does the PPCP improve patient's commitment with self-care? Does the PPCP impact on the use of health care services? The data consists of people aged at least 18 years living in the municipality of Siilinjärvi with diabetes, coronary heart disease or hypertension and who are recorded in in Siilinjärvi Health Care Center electronic patient record. The participating patients are recruited from those who contacts SiiIinjärvi Health Care Center in order to have a follow-up visit because of the treatment of their disease. This study aims to recruit 700 patients.

The participants are allocated into the intervention group and into the control group receiving usual care. Intervention consists of the PPCP. This includes the patient activation questionnaire form, a visit to the nurse who conducts the measurements (blood pressure, waist measurement, weight and length) and a visit to the general practitioner who discusses and agrees with the patient about the treatment goals and follow-up resulting in the written PPCP.

The main out-come measures are the quality of health related life measured with the 15D; the level of patient's activity in self-care with the Patient Activation Measurement (PAM); life satisfaction, self-rated health, a reduction in productivity with the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Questionnaire (WPAI: GH), and the disease specific measures (blood pressure, HbA1C, LDL-cholesterol, body mass index and waist measurement). In addition, pain intensity and interference (NRS 0-10), mood (BDI-21), the number of visits and phone calls and referrals are measured.