Effect of Post-Discharge Telephone Follow-up on Social Dignity of Patients with Heart Failure: A Parallel Randomized Controlled Trial

Heart failure is a malignant and perilous disease as such palliative care is of great importance for patients suffering from this failure. One of the main components in offering specialized palliative care is to respect human rights and dignity. This study aimed to determine the effect of post-discharge telephone follow-up on the social dignity of heart failure patients.

A randomized control trial study was used. 70 patients with heart failure referring to the cardiology ward of general Hospital were included. Patients were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. In the experimental group, the patients had telephone followed-ups concerning medication, disease symptoms, daily activities, and their diet during one-month post-discharge (once a week). Social dignity of patients before and one month after the intervention was measured using the social dignity questionnaire.

In this study, patients were compared in experimental (aged 65±10.6 years) and control (aged 67±13.3 years) groups. According to the statistical tests, there was a significant difference between the mean scores of social dignity in the experimental and control groups (0.8±0.2 and 0.06±0.2) before and after the intervention (Pvalue<0.001).

Use of programmed post-discharge telephone follow-up to enhance social dignity of patients with heart failure, is suggested