IPAD SHARED CARE INTERVENTION FOR HEART FAILURE CARE PARTNERS

Heart failure (HF) patients often experience poor self-care, inadequate support, and increased mortality risk. Patients and family caregivers (“care partners”) have primary roles in self-care, providing support, and future-care planning. Practice guidelines recommend early and active partner involvement, but few interventions exist which effectively prepare partners to engage in these activities. The iPad-enhanced Shared Care Intervention for Partners (iSCIP), improves self-care and future planning based on patient values and preferences. Care partners use the iSCIP app to access self-care materials, manipulate values and preferences, and develop a care plan. This study assessed iSCIP feasibility, acceptability, and usability, and examined its effects on outcomes using a one-group experimental design with 10 sets of care partners. All participants completed 6 sessions, supporting feasibility. Mean program satisfaction scores were 4.8 for patients and 4.9 for caregivers (5 = “very satisfied”). Mean usability scores were 3.2 for patients and 3.3 for caregivers, indicating they were “not sure” or “somewhat agreed” that the app was easy to use. The iSCIP had a strong effect on patients’ self-care management (d = 0.81), with moderate effects for self-care confidence (d = 0.68), self-care maintenance (d = 0.56), and emotional support (d = 0.30). For caregivers, the iSCIP had moderate effects on emotional (d = 0.64) and informational (d = 0.48) support, with smaller effects on self-care confidence (d = 0.21). This study adds to the growing evidence of the acceptability of partner level interventions that address self-care in chronic conditions, care values and preferences, and future-care planning.