title: Workload, time and costs of the informal cares in patients with tele-monitoring of pacemakers: the PONIENTE study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to assess the burden borne by and the costs to informal caregivers of patients with remotely monitored (RM) pacemakers.
  
  
  METHODS
  The PONIENTE study was a controlled, non-randomised clinical trial, with data collected from informal caregivers, 12 months after implantation of pacemakers. The survey on disabilities, personal autonomy, and dependency situations was used to gather information on demographic and social characteristics, levels of professionalism, time and types of care, difficulties in providing care, health status, professional aspects, economic and family or leisure impacts due to informal caregiving for patients with pacemakers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During 14 months, 76 caregivers were enrolled in the PONIENTE trial. Of which, 26 were included in the RM group and 50 in the hospital-monitored group (HM). The mean ages were 58.62 ± 16.51 and 61.10 ± 12.67 years, respectively (p = 0.56) in the groups, and 69.7 % were females. The majority (96.1 %) of the caregivers declared that they had to provide their services between 6 and 7 days per week (88.5 % in RM group versus 100 % in HM group; p = 0.037). The costs related to care provided by the informal caregivers were 21.38 % lower in the RM group than in the HM group (p = 0.033).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The PONIENTE study shows a significant impact of informal care on relatives and friends of patients with pacemakers in terms of their well-being and costs.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02234245.
authors.affiliation: Division of Medicine, Nordland Hospital, Prinsens Gate 164, Postbox 1480 (no. 38), 8005, Bodø, Norway. antoniolopezvillegas@andaluciajunta.es.|Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway. antoniolopezvillegas@andaluciajunta.es.|Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Almería, Almería, Spain. antoniolopezvillegas@andaluciajunta.es.|Management Area, Poniente Hospital, El Ejido-Almería, Spain. antoniolopezvillegas@andaluciajunta.es.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: López-Villegas
authors.affiliation: Health Communication Unit, Carlos III University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Catalán-Matamoros
authors.affiliation: Intensive Care Unit, Poniente Hospital, El Ejido-Almería, Spain.
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Robles-Musso
authors.affiliation: Health Services Research Area, Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research of the Valencian Community (FISABIO), Valencia, Spain.|Research Network in Health Services in Chronic Diseases (REDISSEC), Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Salvador
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Peiró
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002304:Cardiac Pacing, Artificial / Q000191:economics*; D017028:Caregivers / Q000191:economics*; D017281:Cost of Illness; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006304:Health Status; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010138:Pacemaker, Artificial / Q000191:economics*; D005791:Patient Care / Q000191:economics*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D058998:Remote Sensing Technology / Q000191:economics* / Q000295:instrumentation; D013030:Spain; D013997:Time Factors; D016526:Workload / Q000191:economics*
keywords: Cost of illness; Disease burden; Informal caregiving; Pacemaker follow-up; Remote monitoring; Telemedicine