Clinical trial NCT01721005: Screening Versus Routine Practice in Detection of Atrial Fibrillation in the Elderly Population of Lieto
Official title: Screening Versus Routine Practice in Detection of Atrial Fibrillation in the Elderly Population of Lieto
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: Atrial Fibrillation
Stroke
Keywords: atrial fibrillation
thromboembolism
patient education
Lead sponsor: University of Turku
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2012-11-02
Enrollment: 200
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 75
Standard ages: OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

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.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

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

Exclusion Criteria:

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

Primary outcomes:
measure: The willingness to the pulse palpation and competence independently learn to feel own pulse.
timeFrame: 1 month control visit
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Number of patients with new atrial fibrillation detected during the study
timeFrame: At 1 year followup
Other outcomes:
measure: Quality of life
timeFrame: 1 year followup visit
measure: New atrial fibrillation at long-term followup
timeFrame: 5 year control
Locations:
city: Lieto
country: Finland
facility: Härkätie community health center
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Turku
name: Juhani K Airaksinen, Professor
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Jaakkola J, Virtanen R, Vasankari T, Salminen M, Airaksinen KEJ. Self-detection of atrial fibrillation in an aged population: three-year follow-up of the LietoAF intervention study. BMC Geriatr. 2017 Sep 16;17(1):218. doi: 10.1186/s12877-017-0607-0.
citation: Virtanen R, Kryssi V, Vasankari T, Salminen M, Kivela SL, Airaksinen KE. Self-detection of atrial fibrillation in an aged population: the LietoAF Study. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2014 Nov;21(11):1437-42. doi: 10.1177/2047487313494041. Epub 2013 Jun 18.