title: Impact of telemonitoring at home on the management of elderly patients with congestive heart failure.
abstract: We studied the effects of home telemonitoring in elderly patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) on mortality and rate of hospitalization, compliance with treatment, quality of life and costs of CHF management, by comparison with a group receiving usual care. Fifty-seven elderly CHF patients were randomized to standard care or to home telemonitoring-based care and followed for 12 months. In the subjects who were monitored, weekly reports on their clinical status were obtained and their management was modified accordingly. Home telemonitoring was associated with improvements in the composite endpoint of mortality and rate of hospitalizations (P = 0.006), a better compliance with therapy, more frequent use of beta-blockers and statins, lower total cholesterol level and a better reported health perception score. The improved results with home telemonitoring in CHF were probably due to better compliance and to closer monitoring of the patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology and Telemedicine, Italian National Research Centre on Ageing, Via della Montagnola 81, 60100 Ancona, Italy. r.antonicelli@inrca.it
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Antonicelli
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Testarmata
authors.forename: Liana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Spazzafumo
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gagliardi
authors.forename: Grzegorz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bilo
authors.forename: Mariaconsuelo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Valentini
authors.forename: Fabiola
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Olivieri
authors.forename: Gianfranco
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Parati
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002317:Cardiovascular Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017028:Caregivers / Q000193:education; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D002317:Cardiovascular Agents