Clinical trial NCT06813482: Real-World Evaluation of a Digitally Enabled Cardiac Rehabilitation Program
Official title: Heart Health at Home - Real-World Evaluation of a Digitally Enabled Cardiac Rehabilitation Program
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Heart Disease
Chronic Disease
Cardiovascular Disease Prevention
Keywords: telerehabilitation
cardiac rehabilitation
Digital health
Lead sponsor: Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: University of Melbourne
name: Medibank
First posted: 2025-02-07
Enrollment: 172
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: CASE_CONTROL
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Privately insured Australian patients, residing in any State or Territory in Australia

Brief summary: After a heart event or procedure, patients are encouraged to participate in a cardiac rehabilitation (CR) program to improve their health and reduce the risk of future problems. These programs have been shown to improve heart health and reduce hospital readmissions and deaths. However, many patients face challenges attending in-person CR programs, particularly those residing in regional or remote areas. As a result, many patients worldwide do not participate in CR.

Missing out on CR increases the risk of unplanned hospital visits. To overcome these challenges, digitally enabled cardiac rehabilitation programs provide an alternative. These programs use technology, such as mobile apps and telehealth, to deliver care remotely. Although these programs have the potential to make CR more accessible, there is still limited evidence about how well they work in real-world settings, including their impact on hospital visits and overall healthcare use.

Therefore, the goal of this real-world observational study is to evaluate if a digitally enabled and remotely delivered cardiac rehabilitation (DeCR) program, called Heart Health at Home, can improve risk factors and hospital utilization in adults who have experienced a heart event or undergone a heart procedure.

The questions it aims to answer are:

1. Does the DeCR intervention group have associated reductions in hospital readmissions, total hospital bed days, and mortality compared to the usual care group?
2. Do DeCR intervention patients have similar hospital utilization outcomes compared to traditional face-to-face cardiac rehabilitation patients?
3. Does the DeCR intervention have associated improvements in healthy lifestyle behaviors and clinical risk factors?
4. Does the DeCR intervention increase uptake and engagement to cardiac rehabilitation and what are participants' and cardiac nurses' experiences and perceptions of the program?
5. Is the DeCR intervention cost effective?

Researchers will compare participants receiving the DeCR intervention to those receiving traditional face-to-face cardiac rehabilitation and usual care to see if the program leads to better health outcomes and reduced healthcare utilization.

Participants will participate in an 8-week DeCR intervention entailing telehealth consultations with a cardiac rehabilitation nurse and they will use a mobile app, called SmartCR, to access education, remote monitoring and progress tracking.

Detailed description: The Investigators aim to assess a digitally enabled cardiac rehabilitation (DeCR) program, called Heart Health at Home, implemented in a real-world setting. The investigators will assess whether the program improves clinical outcomes, healthcare utilization, and program engagement for adults recovering from a cardiac event or procedure. The researchers hypothesize that the intervention would be associated with healthy lifestyle changes and improvements in clinical risk factors. They anticipate that Heart Health at Home would be associated with similar outcomes compared to traditional face-to-face cardiac rehabilitation and reduced hospital readmissions, hospital bed days and mortality compared to usual care.

Methods:

Investigators will evaluate this study via a prospective cohort study, to establish the associated benefits of the program on healthy lifestyle changes and improvements in clinical risk factors, followed by a propensity matched cohort study via analysis of private hospital claims data. Using propensity score matching methods, two concurrent control groups will be established to compare the DeCR group with patients who undertook either: 1) Face-to-Face cardiac rehabilitation (F2F-CR) or 2) usual care, following an index cardiac hospitalization. The investigators will assess the associated outcomes of DeCR participation on recurrent hospitalisations, days spent in hospital, mortality and cost outlays within 12 months post index admission. Additionally, the investigators will examine participants' and cardiac nurses' experiences and perceptions of the DeCR program.

Patients aged over 18 years, who hold private health insurance with a large Australian private health insurer and who have been hospitalized with a cardiovascular diagnosis and/or procedure eligible for cardiac rehabilitation will be recruited. Patients will be excluded if they; 1) have heart failure (due to the potential for more specialized care); 2) are attending an alternate cardiac rehabilitation program and; 3) do not have access to a smart phone and internet connection.

Baseline pre vs post measures will include:

1. Self-reported demographic information (assessed prior to the intervention) - age, sex, ethnicity, employment, living situation, location and geographic based socioeconomic status.
2. Self reported risk factors - blood pressure using an automated device, height and weight, cigarette smoking, diet via a 9-item questionnaire developed by the investigators based on dietary guidelines, alcohol (total standard drinks per week) and physical activity (total minutes per week).
3. Self reported health and lifestyle behaviours - medication adherence via the 4-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS); functional capacity via the 12-item Duke Activity Status Index (DASI); psychological distress via the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10); health status via the EuroQol 5-level questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L) (index value-Australia) and patient engagement in managing their health via the 13-item Patient Activation Measure (PAM).
4. App engagement tasks via the mobile app - daily blood pressure, using an automated device, stress levels, twice daily walking, weekly weight measurements and personalised education topics. Blood glucose concentration and alcohol intake will only be assessed if assigned to patients as a goal.

Hospital admission data will be collected for all patient groups, for 12-months post discharge and include:

date of admission and discharge, index procedure information, sociodemographic data, cardiovascular disease condition, smoking history, past history of diabetes, chronic kidney disease and previous acute myocardial infarction, Charlson Comorbidity Index and risk of readmission via the PEGASUS-TIMI score - 'Prevention with Ticagrelor of Secondary Thrombotic events in high-risk Patients with Prior Acute Coronary Syndrome - Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction'.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

1. Patients aged over 18 years AND
2. hold private health insurance with Medibank at a level that includes cover for hospital treatment AND
3. Discharged from hospital with a cardiovascular diagnosis and/or procedure eligible for cardiac rehabilitation, as defined by the National Heart Foundation of Australia AND
4. be able to give written consent to participate

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Patients with heart failure; OR
2. Patients attending an alternate cardiac rehab program for the corresponding index event; OR
3. Patients who do not have access to a smart phone and internet connection

Primary outcomes:
measure: Hospital utilization
timeFrame: 30-day, 90-day and 12-month post discharge
measure: Hospital utilization
timeFrame: 30-day, 90-day and 12-month post discharge
measure: Mortality
timeFrame: 30-days and 12-month post discharge
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Blood pressure
timeFrame: At completion of the intervention at 8 weeks.
measure: Body mass index
timeFrame: At completion of the intervention at 8 weeks.
measure: Diet
timeFrame: At completion of the intervention at 8 weeks
measure: Alcohol intake - average number of standard alcoholic drinks consumed per week
timeFrame: At completion of the intervention at 8 weeks
measure: Physical activity
timeFrame: At completion of the intervention at 8 weeks
measure: Patient Activation Measure
timeFrame: At completion of the intervention at 8 weeks
measure: Functional capacity - Duke Activity Status Index
timeFrame: At completion of the intervention at 8 weeks
measure: Kessler Psychological Distress Scale
timeFrame: At completion of the intervention at 8 weeks.
measure: Quality of life - EuroQol-5 Dimension questionnaire
timeFrame: At completion of the intervention at 8 weeks.
measure: Medication adherence - 4-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale
timeFrame: At completion of the intervention at 8 weeks.
Other outcomes:
measure: Mobile app engagement for tasks set
timeFrame: At completion of the intervention at 8 weeks.
measure: Medication engagement via the app
timeFrame: At completion of the intervention at 8 weeks.
measure: Overall mobile app engagement
timeFrame: At completion of the intervention at 8 weeks.
Locations:
city: Melbourne
country: Australia
facility: Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute
state: Victoria
Study officials:
affiliation: Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute
name: Melinda J Carrington
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Blacher J, Olie V, Gabet A, Cinaud A, Tuppin P, Iliou MC, Grave C. Two-year prognosis and cardiovascular disease prevention after acute coronary syndrome: the role of cardiac rehabilitation-a French nationwide study. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2024 Nov 18;31(16):1939-1947. doi: 10.1093/eurjpc/zwae194.
citation: Kotseva K, Wood D, De Bacquer D; EUROASPIRE investigators. Determinants of participation and risk factor control according to attendance in cardiac rehabilitation programmes in coronary patients in Europe: EUROASPIRE IV survey. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2018 Aug;25(12):1242-1251. doi: 10.1177/2047487318781359. Epub 2018 Jun 6.
citation: Ades PA, Keteyian SJ, Wright JS, Hamm LF, Lui K, Newlin K, Shepard DS, Thomas RJ. Increasing Cardiac Rehabilitation Participation From 20% to 70%: A Road Map From the Million Hearts Cardiac Rehabilitation Collaborative. Mayo Clin Proc. 2017 Feb;92(2):234-242. doi: 10.1016/j.mayocp.2016.10.014. Epub 2016 Nov 15.
citation: Woodruffe S, Neubeck L, Clark RA, Gray K, Ferry C, Finan J, Sanderson S, Briffa TG. Australian Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation Association (ACRA) core components of cardiovascular disease secondary prevention and cardiac rehabilitation 2014. Heart Lung Circ. 2015 May;24(5):430-41. doi: 10.1016/j.hlc.2014.12.008. Epub 2015 Jan 12.
citation: Braver J, Marwick TH, Oldenburg B, Issaka A, Carrington MJ. Digital Health Programs to Reduce Readmissions in Coronary Artery Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JACC Adv. 2023 Sep 7;2(8):100591. doi: 10.1016/j.jacadv.2023.100591. eCollection 2023 Oct.
citation: Varnfield M, Karunanithi M, Lee CK, Honeyman E, Arnold D, Ding H, Smith C, Walters DL. Smartphone-based home care model improved use of cardiac rehabilitation in postmyocardial infarction patients: results from a randomised controlled trial. Heart. 2014 Nov;100(22):1770-9. doi: 10.1136/heartjnl-2014-305783. Epub 2014 Jun 27.
citation: Golbus JR, Lopez-Jimenez F, Barac A, Cornwell WK 3rd, Dunn P, Forman DE, Martin SS, Schorr EN, Supervia M; Exercise, Cardiac Rehabilitation and Secondary Prevention Committee of the Council on Clinical Cardiology; Council on Lifelong Congenital Heart Disease and Heart Health in the Young; Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research; and Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing. Digital Technologies in Cardiac Rehabilitation: A Science Advisory From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2023 Jul 4;148(1):95-107. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000001150. Epub 2023 Jun 5.
citation: Turk-Adawi K, Sarrafzadegan N, Grace SL. Global availability of cardiac rehabilitation. Nat Rev Cardiol. 2014 Oct;11(10):586-96. doi: 10.1038/nrcardio.2014.98. Epub 2014 Jul 15.
citation: Dibben G, Faulkner J, Oldridge N, Rees K, Thompson DR, Zwisler AD, Taylor RS. Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for coronary heart disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2021 Nov 6;11(11):CD001800. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD001800.pub4.
citation: Visseren FLJ, Mach F, Smulders YM, Carballo D, Koskinas KC, Back M, Benetos A, Biffi A, Boavida JM, Capodanno D, Cosyns B, Crawford C, Davos CH, Desormais I, Di Angelantonio E, Franco OH, Halvorsen S, Hobbs FDR, Hollander M, Jankowska EA, Michal M, Sacco S, Sattar N, Tokgozoglu L, Tonstad S, Tsioufis KP, van Dis I, van Gelder IC, Wanner C, Williams B; ESC National Cardiac Societies; ESC Scientific Document Group. 2021 ESC Guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice. Eur Heart J. 2021 Sep 7;42(34):3227-3337. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehab484. No abstract available.