Clinical trial NCT04239911: Leveraging Home Health Aides to Improve Outcomes in Heart Failure
Official title: Leveraging Home Health Aides to Improve Outcomes in Heart Failure: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Heart Failure
Congestive Heart Failure
Keywords: home health aides
home health care
home care agency
Lead sponsor: Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
First posted: 2020-01-27
Enrollment: 105
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: 104 home health aides will be recruited from VNS Health and randomized to either enhanced usual care arm (heart failure training course; n = 52) or the intervention (heart failure training course plus mHealth app; n =52). Four nurses will also be recruited to the study. The total duration of each home health aides' involvement will be 90 days.
Primary purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Brief summary: The purpose of the study is to determine the effectiveness of an intervention among home health aides caring for adults admitted to home care with a primary diagnosis of heart failure at VNS Health Partners in Care (home care agency). The study will examine the interventions' effect on home health aides' heart failure knowledge and confidence caring for adults with heart failure, as well as on the client's overall health (visits to the emergency department and hospital readmissions).

Detailed description: The investigator's central hypothesis is that an intervention that can optimize and improve the experience of home health aides caring for the heart failure patients has the potential to improve home health aides' own self-efficacy, heart failure knowledge, and also patient outcomes. The intervention for home health aides is comprised of a) remote classroom education on heart failure and b) an mHealth app containing HF educational content and a messaging application that connects HHAs and their nurse supervisors. This intervention requires feasibility and acceptability testing, as well as preliminary testing of its effectiveness among home health aides caring for community-dwelling adults with heart failure.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Home health aide employed at VNS Health Partners in Care home care agency.
* 1 or more years of experience as a home health aide.
* Speak English or Spanish.
* Assigned to care for an adult admitted to home care with a primary diagnosis of heart failure.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Doesn't meet inclusion criteria.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in Heart Failure Knowledge
timeFrame: Baseline (0 days); at follow-up (90 days)
measure: Change in Heart Failure Caregiving Self-efficacy
timeFrame: Baseline (0 days); at follow-up (90 days)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change in Job Satisfaction
timeFrame: Baseline (0 days); at follow-up (90 days)
measure: Change in Intention to Leave
timeFrame: Baseline (0 days); at follow-up (90 days)
Other outcomes:
measure: Number of Visits to the Emergency Department
timeFrame: Baseline (0 days); at follow-up (90 days)
measure: Number of Readmissions to the Hospital
timeFrame: Baseline (0 days); at follow-up (90 days)
measure: Change in Preventable 911 Calls
timeFrame: Baseline (0 days); at follow-up (90 days)
Locations:
city: New York
country: United States
facility: VNS Health Partners in Care
state: New York
Study officials:
affiliation: Weill Medical College of Cornell University
name: Madeline R Sterling, MD, MPH, MS
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: