Effective health education methods to improve self-care in older people with chronic heart failure: A systematic review

Objective: Health education is proven to be able to improve self-care behavior, reduce hospital readmission, hospitalization or death in the older people with chronic diseases. Strategies in delivering education can make it easier for the older people to understand the learning provided. The aim of this systematic study was to identify effective health education methods to improve self-care behavior in older people with Chronic Heart Failure.
Methods: We performed literature searching in seven databases (Pubmed, Cochrane, Ebscohost, Proquest, DOAJ,Science direct, and Clinical Key) to identify studies published in the last five years (2015–2020) that review the health education methods in older people with CHF. Articles that meet the inclusion criteria will be assessed using critical appraisal skills program (CASP) tool from the Joanna Brigg’s Institute, and the Cochrane of risk bias tools to assess the risk of bias of the articles.
Results: Eight studies met the inclusion criteria. Health education methods included individualized with telephone follow-ups, lectures, and face-to-face deliveries. The duration of education started from 30 min to 3 h. Health education can significantly improve self-care behavior in older people, although some do not have a positive effect after the intervention.
Conclutions and clinical implications: This review describes several health education methods for the older people in changing the self-care behavior of CHF patients. Although there are a variety of methods that we found, we can provide an overview of effective educational methods in the older people with CHF from the quality of the results of the studies we reviewed. This review is that only a few studies have focused on older people. Health education needs to be provided by a nurse to reduce the morbidity and mortality of older people with CHF.