Improving Drug Use for Elderly Heart Failure Patients

Medications improve the function and health-related quality of life of patients with heart failure and reduce morbidity, mortality, and the costs of patient care. Due to their complicated medication regimens, however, older adults with heart failure require assistance with their medications to facilitate adherence and improve their health outcomes. Recent studies suggest that the outcomes of patients with heart failure improve when pharmacists provide patients with education and monitoring. This study aims to develop and test, as a randomized controlled trial, a multileveled pharmacy-based program that incorporates patient education materials and medication packaging that target patients with low health literacy.

Elderly patients from Wishard Health Services with a diagnosis of heart failure (n=314) were randomly assigned to the pharmacist intervention or usual care group. Patients in the intervention group received verbal and written education, icon-based labeling of their medication containers, and therapeutic monitoring. A main objective of the pharmacist was to reinforce primary care providers' instructions to the patient. The pharmacist educated patients about their medications, identified barriers to appropriate drug use, coached patients on overcoming drug use barriers, and coordinated drug use for these patients with primary care providers. Patients in the usual care (control) group did not receive the intervention and also served as a prospective cohort to identify the determinants of acute exacerbation.

To measure medication compliance objectively, electronic monitor lids were used on all heart failure medications for patients in intervention and control groups. These lids contain a computer chip that electronically imprints a time/date stamp when opened and closed. Each open-close event indicates that the patient has taken a dose of their medication. By downloading this information from the medication container lid to a computer, we can objectively assess the pattern of medication compliance. Study participation for the patients in the intervention group concluded after nine months of active intervention and three months of post-intervention follow-up.

The usual care group permitted our identification of the causes for clinical deterioration in patients with heart failure. The unique electronic medical record at our institution, the Regenstrief Medical Record System, permits capture of a wealth of clinical data, which can be merged with primary data from the trial (for example, medication adherence by MEMS caps, brain natriuretic peptide, and quality of life assessments). Patients' data captured from the Regenstrief Medical Record System during the year of follow-up were used to perform multivariate analyses to determine causes of clinical deterioration. So doing provided insights into the pathophysiology of decompensation in patients with heart failure to enhance our understanding of risk factors of this increasingly prevalent disease and thereby lead us to better therapeutic strategies.

Covariates used in our analyses of risk factors included age, sex, race, weight, ejection fraction, brain natriuretic peptide and other renal autacoids, and New York Heart Association classification. Endpoints include health-related quality of life, heart failure exacerbation, patient satisfaction, and healthcare costs. We evaluated the effectiveness of the pharmacy-based program in improving adherence to heart failure medications, improving health-related quality of life, decreasing heart failure exacerbations, increasing patient satisfaction, and decreasing health care costs. Once identified, factors predicting decompensation of heart failure may become the targets of future interventions aimed at preventable causes.