Effect of interventional follow-up phone calls on health-related quality of life in adult patients with heart failure in Saudi Arabia: a pilot study

Aim. To determine the eff ects of interventional follow-up phone calls on the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in adult patients with heart failure (HF). Material and methods. This quasi-experimental with a one-group pretest-posttest design was conducted on 30 patients with HF receiving interventional follow-up phone calls by a cardiology nurse from an internationally recognized healthcare organization in Saudi Arabia. Data were collected by sociodemographic and clinical surveys and Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire. A paired sample t-student test was conducted to measure the eff ectiveness of the follow-up calls on the HRQOL pretest and posttest. Results. A statistically significant difference was found between the pre-intervention and post-intervention mean scores of the total HRQOL scale and all the subscales: physical, emotional/psychological, and socio-economic (p<0.001). The diff erence between the mean pretest-posttest scores was 31.08 (SD=11.09), which was statistically significant at t(29)=14.29 (p<0.001). The participants’ overall HRQOL increased significantly after the intervention (Mean=39.04, SD=1.66). Conclusions. Interventional follow-up phone calls were found to be eff ective in improving the HRQOL of patients with HF. However, a larger study – a multi-center one, is needed to confirm the findings of this study. By providing empirical evidence, this research may motivate cardiology nurses to pursue such programs in this population.