The impact of home care on individuals with chronic heart failure: A comprehensive review.

BACKGROUND

Heart failure is a widespread condition linked to elevated mortality rates, readmission incidents, and healthcare expenditures. Home care has emerged as a promising strategy for managing patients with heart failure. This study seeks to comprehensively review the impact of home care on individuals diagnosed with heart failure.

METHODS

A comprehensive review was conducted by searching for relevant articles in Persian and English using keywords such as 'Nursing,' 'Home care,' 'Home care services,' Health Care Costs,' 'Heart diseases,' and 'Heart failure' across various databases including SID, Magiran, Ovid, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, ProQuest, Embase and Medline. The search was limited to articles published between 2000 and 2023, focusing on those suitable for the study's purpose.

RESULTS

A total of 1,260 articles were initially identified. After eliminating duplicate and irrelevant articles, evaluating the availability of full texts, and applying entry and exit criteria, as well as utilizing the CONSORT, STROBE checklist, and JBI Checklist for qualitative assessment of the studies, a total of 13 English articles were deemed suitable for inclusion in the final review. These studies utilized various study designs to investigate the effects of home care on patients with heart failure.

CONCLUSION

The findings of this study suggest that home care has a positive impact on the quality of life, knowledge, and self-care of patients with heart failure. Additionally, it has been shown to reduce healthcare costs, readmission rates, and mortality. Therefore, it is recommended to prioritize home care for patients with chronic heart failure following discharge.