Effect of telehealth on self-care behavior of heart failure patients

Telehealth systems to monitor heart failure patients have become a very important tool in the last decade. However, little is known about the effect that such monitoring systems have on the self-care behavior of these patients. This study aims to investigate this effect, and to determine whether Telehealth helps improving patients compliance. Daily measurements of blood pressure, pulse, SpO2 and weight were collected from 108 patients suffering from heart failure. In addition, they were asked to fill in the European heart failure self-care behavior scale questionnaire before and after the monitoring period. Significant differences were found between the self-care behavior before and after the program. More specifically, the questions concerning weight and fluid intake per day, show a significant (p ≪ 0.05) improvement in patients´ compliance. These improvements were validated using the evolution of the physiological parameters. Patients whose blood pressure and weight tend to decrease, also appear to have significant changes in behavior.