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Completed

NCT Number: NCT03820674

A Telerehabilitation Intervention for People With Heart Failure and Chronic Fatigue

This study compares the effectiveness of a 6-week Energy Conservation + Problem Solving Therapy Intervention to Health Education Intervention for reducing the fatigue impact and fatigue level and improving the level of participation in instrumental, leisure, and social activities in people with heart failure associated fatigue. Half of the participants received Energy Conservation + Problem Solving Therapy Intervention, and the other half received Health Education Intervention.

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Key information

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

About this study

Energy Conservation+Problem Solving Therapy (EC+PST) Intervention: In this study, the EC+PST Intervention will ideally occur twice a week for 6 weeks with each session lasting approximately 30 minutes. The intervention will be individually delivered via telehealth; therefore, participants will receive the intervention in their home to minimize fatigue from the intervention.

Health Education Intervention: The Health Education Intervention will occur once a week for 6 weeks with each session lasting approximately 30 minutes. The Health Education Intervention will be delivered via telehealth; therefore, participants will receive the intervention at their convenient quiet place to minimize fatigue from the intervention.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

(a) a minimum 6 months since diagnosed with HF and 3 months post-hospitalization, (b) reporting of moderate to severe fatigue by scoring ≥4 according to Fatigue Severity Scale, (c) living in the community, (d) having access to the internet or telephone in the place of residence, (e) having functional English fluency, and (f) having functional vision to operate the tablet computer.

Exclusion criteria

  • had a score of ≥9 in Short Blessed Test indicating cognitive impairment
  • were classified as having New York Heart Association (NYHA) Functional Classification level IV on their medical record

Treatment and study plan

Energy Conservation plus Problem Solving Therapy

Other

EC-PST is a client-centered intervention aiming to guide people with chronic fatigue to create their own solutions so that they can generalize those learned solutions and strategies to other fatigue-related problems even after completing the study participation. Some of the topics covered during the first two introductory sessions are facts regarding fatigue, budgeting and banking energy, and the introduction of EC+PST Intervention.

Health Education Intervention

Other

The interventionist will be the PI, an occupational therapist (co-I), or OT graduate student who will be trained in the health education topics. During the Health Education sessions, participants will be educated on health-related topics relevant to CHF and EC strategies, although they will not learn how to apply the information to their daily life. Health Education Workbook containing information on the topics taught during the sessions will be provided during the Pretest visit and used throughout the Health Education sessions.

Primary outcomes

  1. Changes in Fatigue Impact Scale (FIS)

    Time frame: Pretest (Week 0), Posttest (Week 7)

    The FIS is a 40-item measure that assesses the impact of fatigue on daily life in three different dimensions: Cognitive (10 items), Physical (10 items), and Psychosocial functioning (20 items). Each item is rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 0 (no problem) to 4 (extreme problem), and the global score is the sum of 40 items, ranging from 0 to 160.

  2. Changes in Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) - Short Form Ver 1.0 Fatigue 8a

    Time frame: Pretest (Week 0), Posttest (Week 7)

    The PROMIS Fatigue 8a is a test measuring the experience and impact of fatigue. This assessment consists of 8 questions on fatigue experience and impact, and the raw score is converted to T-score (50% is the mean of the population). Higher the T-score, worse the fatigue.

  3. Changes in Activity Card Sort (ACS)

    Time frame: Pretest (Week 0), Posttest (Week 7)

    The ACS is a measure of the participation level in instrumental, leisure, and social activities. The ACS uses 89 photographs to calculate the percentage of retained activities since their diagnosis

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

East Carolina University

Other

Registry information

Official study title

A Telerehabilitation Intervention to Reduce the Impact of Fatigue in People With Congestive Heart Failure and Chronic Fatigue

Important dates

Study start
2016
Primary completion
2018
Study completion
2019
First posted
Jan 29, 2019
Registry last updated
Jan 29, 2020

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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