The effect of health literacy promotion through virtual education on the self-care behaviors in patients with heart failure: A Clinical Trial

Paying due attention to educational intervention based self-care skills in patients with chronic diseases, especially cardiovascular patients, can predispose them to improve their condition. This study investigates the effect of promotion of health literacy through virtual education on the self-care behaviors in patients with heart failure.

This clinical trial was conducted on 56 heart failure patients. The participants were selected using the convenience sampling method and then randomly assigned into two groups (28 in the experimental group and 28 in the control group). The experimental group received a health literacy promotion program via the iSpring Play app. The intervention consisted of four major topics on self-care issues in the form of text, photos, animation, and short videos. Each week, a topic link was made available to participants. After sending the link, through the cyberspace system, the necessary follow-ups on accessing and understanding the information and its application and emphasizing the correct points of self-care were performed and the participants' questions were answered. Data were collected with demographics questionnaire and Riegel et al.’s Self-care Index before and after the intervention. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS19 using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The overall self-care mean score increased in both groups after intervention compared to before the intervention indicating a significant difference on the basis of results of paired t-test (p <0.05). The mean score of overall self-care was greater in the experimental group (48.75±5.5) after the intervention compared to the control group (39.96±6.16). Independent t-test showed a significant difference between the two groups (p <0.05).

The results demonstrated a significant increase in the mean score of overall self-care in patients undergoing health literacy promotion programs with virtual education. Hence, innovative methods based on virtual education could be considered to improve self-care behaviors in cardiac failure patients.