Health Literacy and Self-Management in Heart Failure

A multi-site randomized trial to test whether a literacy-sensitive intervention to improve heart failure self-management skills can improve health outcomes for all patients, and particularly those with inadequate literacy. A literacy-sensitive, multi-session intervention that teaches essential self-care skills until patients reach behavioral goals, Teach to Goal (TTG), is being compared to a brief educational intervention (BEI) consisting of a single educational session. Outcomes measured include incidence of hospitalizations or death and heart failure-related quality of life over 12 months. In addition, the differences in the proportion of patients achieving appropriate heart failure-related self-care knowledge and behaviors and the effect of TTG for patients with adequate and inadequate health literacy is being examined separately.

Principal Investigator: Michael Pignone, M.D., M.P.H.

Funding Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH

Total Project Period: 07/06 – 05/31/12