The Effect of Continuous Care Model Implementation on the Quality of Life of Patients with Heart Failure: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Heart failure is an important chronic and progressive disease worldwide. Patients are faced with several stressors that decrease their quality of life (QoL). The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of implementing a continuous care model on improving the QoL of patients with heart failure. Methods: In the present randomized controlled trial, 72 patients with heart failure admitted to Shahid Chamran Hospital of Isfahan (in Central Iran) were randomly divided into 36-individual two groups: the experimental (continuous care model) and control (normal care) groups. In the experimental group, the continuous care model was implemented for 3 months. Data were collected using the standard Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire for patients with heart failure. Subsequently, the collected data were entered into the IBM SPSS ver. 20.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) and analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U-test, chi-square test, and independent and paired t-test at a significance level of alpha <= 0.05. Results: The results indicated that the mean scores of QoL before the implementation of continuous care model were 43.3 +/- 6.1 in the experimental group and 42.7 +/- 5.1 in the control group, indicating no statistically significant difference between the two groups. After the implementation of continuous care model, the mean score of QoL of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group. Conclusion: Considering the results obtained in the present study, model implementation could improve the overall scores of QoL in patients with chronic heart failure.