Exploration of patients' readiness for an eHealth management program for chronic heart failure: a preliminary study

Abstract

Heart failure (HF) is a major public health problem in the United States. Approximately 5 million Americans are living with HF, and each year, 550,000 more are newly diagnosed. With recent, rapidly advancing technologies, many studies have examined the effects of technology-based HF management programs. Most of these studies focused on telemonitoring devices, lacking an aspect to motivate individuals to manage their own illnesses. This exploratory study was conducted to (1) examine the readiness of patients with HF in using an eHealth program that includes both telemonitoring and motivational components (ie, Web learning modules, eCommunication) and (2) assess the specific needs of patients with HF that can be addressed by a future eHealth program. This was a single group descriptive study using a convenience sample. A total of 44 patients with HF (mean age, 72.8 years; range, 55-85 years) were recruited from the pool of enrollees of the Medicare Coordinated Care Demonstration project for HF management that used only a telemonitoring component. Although only 10 participants were users, among 34 nonusers, 17 reported availability of Web access, and 15 reported that they would use the Internet if access and training were available. Overall, confidence for using telemonitoring devices and Web-based health modules was high, with means of 27 (range, 3-30) and 7.6 (range, 1-10), respectively. Confidence for learning health information using Web modules, however, was lower with a mean of 41.5 (range, 8-80). The 2 most highly rated health information needs were research findings (n = 41, 93.2%) and medication (n = 39, 88.6%). Most participants would like to have e-mail communication with healthcare providers. The findings showed the participants' high readiness to use the proposed eHealth program if access and training were provided. This study used a small convenience sample. Further studies are needed with larger, diverse samples.