Telematic Educational Intervention in Patients With Heart Failure. (TEACH)

January 5, 2026 updated by: Maria Jose Santi Cano

Effectiveness of a Telematic Educational Intervention in Improving Self-care Levels in Patients With Heart Failure

Background: Heart Failure (HF) is one of the most prevalent pathologies in Western countries, representing a significant percentage of their healthcare expenditure. Much of the success of specialised programmes for the control and treatment of this pathology is achieved within Heart Failure Units. These programmes are based on enhancing patients' capacity to perform effective self-care. Self-care in heart failure involves several aspects: maintaining healthy lifestyle habits, monitoring signs and symptoms of decompensation, controlling blood pressure, heart rate, and body weight, and the ability to manage potential decompensations either autonomously or by seeking available healthcare services.

Heart failure units carry out structured therapeutic education for these patients through individualized, face-to-face educational interventions upon admission to the unit, placing special emphasis on training patients and their caregivers in effective self-care. However, studies show that the level of self-care among HF patients remains low. Furthermore, the new healthcare reality following the pandemic situation necessitates the search for strategies that facilitate better time management while improving the self-care capacity of HF patients. Within this clinical context, it is necessary to seek alternatives that allow for the provision of adequate quality of care while overcoming the obstacles imposed by the current situation.

Objective: The objective of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a telematics-based educational intervention, in addition to the standard standardised educational intervention, in self-care in patients in the Heart Failure Unit six months after admission.

Methodology: A randomised clinical trial design with parallel groups (intervention and control) will be applied. The study sample, consisting of 50 patients in each group, will be recruited from patients treated in the Heart Failure Unit of the University Hospital. All patients and their caregivers (if applicable) in both groups will receive the same individualised educational intervention. The patients assigned to the intervention group will also receive a telematics-based educational intervention through video call through the WhatsApp messaging application three months after the initial face-to-face intervention.

The study variables will include sociodemographic and physiological data, adherence to pharmacological treatment, immunisations, dietary assessment, physical exercise assessment, number and management of decompensations, self-care levels and quality of life. After six months in the heart failure unit, all patients in both groups will be reassessed using the same instruments and the statistical differences between the groups will be analysed. The primary outcome variable will be the level of self-care, measured by the European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale.

Study Overview

Status

Enrolling by invitation

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

100

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Spain
    • Cádiz
      • Cadiz, Cádiz, Spain, 11009
        • University Hospital of Jerez

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adults over 18 years of age.
  • Clinical diagnosis of heart failure class II, III and IV.
  • Ejection fraction less than or equal to 35%.
  • Those who have a smartphone that allows video calls.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with impaired cognitive ability, meaning they cannot follow basic self-care and education guidelines.
  • Patients with acute heart failure that can be resolved by treating the underlying cause.
  • Patients with high comorbidity, where non-cardiac conditions pose a greater risk and have a worse prognosis than heart failure itself.
  • Patients enrolled in any other clinical trial.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control
Experimental: Digital health
Behavioral: Digital health
Education through mHealth

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
European Heart Failure Self-Care Behaviour Scale
Time Frame: From enrollment to the end of intervention at 6 months
It consists of a 12-item self-administered questionnaire that addresses different aspects of patient self-care. It is scored using a Likert scale from 1 (strongly agree/always) to 5 (strongly disagree/never). This allows for the classification of the overall self-care level within the following ranges: low (44-60), medium (28-43), and high (12-27).
From enrollment to the end of intervention at 6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Maria Jose Santi Cano

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 7, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

March 7, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

June 7, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 19, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 19, 2025

First Posted (Estimated)

January 5, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 8, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 5, 2026

Last Verified

December 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • PI-25-07-2024

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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