Caregiver presence in a home-based cardiac rehabilitation programme improves the health-related quality of life of patients with heart failure

Abstract

Rehabilitation Enablement in CHronic Heart Failure (REACH-HF) is a home-based cardiac rehabilitation intervention designed for patients with heart failure and their caregivers. We present a pooled analysis of patients > 18 years with a confirmed diagnosis of HF recruited to two REACH-HF randomised controlled trials. Where identified by patients and they consented to participate, caregivers were randomly assigned with patients to receive the REACH-HF intervention plus usual care or usual care alone. Our analysis demonstrated that compared to control group, the REACH-HF group had a greater gain in their disease-specific health related quality of life at follow up.