Comparison of the Effect of Two Teach-Back Training and Pictorial Training Methods on Medication Adherence in Heart Failure Patients

Medicinal nonadherence prevents the achievement of therapeutic goals in cardiovascular patients. Training is essential to increase medicinal adherence. Therefore, the present study compared the effect of two teach-back and pictorial training methods on the medication adherence in heart failure patients.

This quasi-experimental study was performed on 210 heart failure patients in Hamadan Heart Hospital in 2019. Patients were selected by convenience sampling and randomly assigned to one of three groups of Teach-back, pictorial, and control training. Training sessions were held in three sessions on three consecutive days. Data were collected using demographic and medication adherence questionnaire (MMAS-8) before, immediately and 6 weeks after training. ANOVA, ANCOVA and Repeated measures ANOVA statistical tests were used.

There was no statistically significant difference between the three groups in medicinal adherence at baseline. Immediately after training, medication adherence was significantly higher in teach-back and pictorial groups than the control group (P<0.001), but there was no difference between teach back group and the pictorial group (P=0.123). Six weeks after training, medicinal adherence was significantly higher in teach-back group compared to the control and pictorial group (P<0.001). There was no significant difference between the two methods at different levels of education (P>0.05).

Teach-back training helps maintain medicinal adherence in heart failure patients. Therefore, it is recommended that nurses use this training method to improve medicinal adherence in these patients.