Review: specialised multidisciplinary follow up reduces hospital admissions but not mortality in patients with heart failure
QUESTION: Do disease management programmes reduce hospital admissions and all cause mortality in patients with heart failure (HF)?
Data sources
Randomised trials were identified by searching Medline (1966–99), EMBASE/Excerpta Medica (1980–98), CINAHL (1982–99), SIGLE (1980–98), the Cochrane Controlled Trials Registry, and the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organization of Care Study Registry; reviewing bibliographies of retrieved studies; and contacting experts.
Study selection
Studies in any language were selected if they reported the effect of outpatient HF management programmes on mortality or hospital admissions. Studies were excluded if outcomes for patients with HF were not reported separately from patients with other diseases or the data were not available from the authors.
Data extraction
Data were extracted on study sample size, patient characteristics, key components of the intervention, duration of intervention, and outcomes. Main outcomes were all cause mortality and hospital admissions.
Main results
11 trials (n=2067) met the selection …
