Impact of a telehealth intervention to augment home health care on functional and recovery outcomes of elderly patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting.

OBJECTIVE This pilot study examined the effect of a home communication intervention (HCI) to augment home health care (HHC) on functioning and recovery outcomes of elderly patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft. DESIGN A randomized, experimental two-group (N = 50) repeated-measures design was used. Both HCI and control subjects received HHC, and the HCI group also received the 12-week HCI delivered by a telehealth device, the Health Buddy (Health Hero Network). The Medical Outcome Study Short Form-36 measured physiologic and psychosocial functioning at baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months after surgery. Follow-up subject interviews ascertained self-report of postoperative problems and health care use. SAMPLE Subjects had an average age of 75.3 years and included males (56%) and females (44%). RESULTS By using repeated-measures analyses of covariance, covariating for the total number of HHC visits, HCI subjects, compared with the HHC group only, had a significantly higher adjusted mean general health functioning score (F = 8.41 [1, 36], P < .01). There were significant time effects on physical, role-physical, and mental health functioning, indicating that both groups improved over time. The groups reported similar postoperative problems; however, the control group had more emergency department visits than the HCI group. CONCLUSIONS Findings demonstrate the potential benefit of using an HCI to further augment outcomes of high-risk patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery referred to HHC after hospitalization.

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