Effects of Family Sodium Watcher Program on Outcomes in Heart Failure Patient-Family Caregiver Dyads
Condition: Heart Failure
MeSH terms: Heart Failure
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The Family Sodium Watcher program in this study is designed to improve adherence to a sodium
      restricted diet in patients with HF using strategies that educate both patients and family
      caregivers about sodium monitoring and that stress a gradual progressive adaptation to low
      sodium food for both patients and family caregivers.
    

Detailed description: 
      Heart failure (HF) emerged as a significant public health threat in the 1990s and has now
      reached epidemic proportions. Despite advances in the medical treatment of HF, patients with
      HF face frequent hospitalizations for acute exacerbations. Inadequate self-care strategies,
      in particular non-adherence to a sodium restricted diet (SRD), is a main cause of these
      rehospitalizations. Prior interventions to increase adherence have focused on increasing
      knowledge about restricting sodium in the diet have met with limited success. Unaddressed by
      these interventions are the major barriers of measuring and tracking daily sodium intake,
      family members who continue to eat high sodium diets, and a preference for salty
      foods-particularly in the elderly who have a decreased sense of taste. It is possible to
      retrain the taste buds to enjoy low salt foods by gradually reducing the amount of sodium in
      foods over the course of 16 weeks. This retraining works best with direct involvement and
      support from family members. The Family Sodium Watcher Program (Family SWaP) proposed in this
      study incorporates the use of a unique electronic salt monitoring device that easily measures
      salt content in food-the major source of sodium. The intervention is designed to improve
      adherence to a SRD by both patients and family caregivers through education and strategies
      for gradual taste adaptation to low salt foods.
    

Intervention name(s): Family SWaP intervention; usual care
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The Family Sodium Watcher Program (Family SWaP) proposed in this study incorporates the use of a unique electronic salt monitoring device that easily measures salt content in food-the major source of sodium. The intervention is designed to improve adherence to a sodium restricted diet by both patients and family caregivers through education and strategies for gradual taste adaptation to low salt foods. The Family SWaP intervention (6 weekly 45-minute sessions followed by 5 bi-weekly booster sessions) will be delivered remotely using a video-conferencing program on an iPad tablet.; The usual care group will receive their routine medical and nursing care for heart failure that consists of a recommendation to follow a sodium restricted diet without explicit skills training to do so.
Other intervention name(s): Family SWaP
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: a randomized controlled trial
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary purpose: Supportive Care
Keywords: Diet, low-sodium; caregivers