Atrial Fibrillation, Stroke
Conditions
Keywords
atrial fibrillation, thromboembolism, patient education
Brief summary
The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of patient education on feeling the own pulse irregularity in the elderly population of Lieto. Prevalence of atrial fibrillation (AF) rises with age. Subjects have often symptoms like palpitation and discomfort but especially in elderly population there's significant quantity of persons who don't feel any symptoms and fail to seek for medical care for stroke prevention. The main objectives in this study are to find out the prevalence of AF in the elderly population of Lieto, to assess the feasibility and reability of patient education on feeling one's pulse irregularity and the affect to the quality of life of the participating subjects and monitoring the possible increased burden to the public health care system. The study contains two office visits with specified learning session and long-term phone-call follow-up.
Detailed description
The main objectives in this study are to find out the prevalence of AF in the elderly population of Lieto, to assess the feasibility of patient education on feeling one's pulse irregularity and the affect to the quality of life of the participating subjects and monitoring the possible increased burden to the public health care system. The study contains two office visits with specified learning session and long-term phone-call follow-up. A specially trained nurse will initially give a 10 min education on pulse palpation to each person and evaluate their capacity to learn pulse palpation. During followup visits the compliance of the patient and possible new arrhythmias plus quality of life issues are recorded and their ability of pulse palpation is evaluated by artificial hand where various kinds of pulses are transmitted.
Interventions
OTHERSubject education to pulse palpation
The subject is educated to pulse palpation by registered cardiac nurse. The education time is limited to 10 minutes and done according preplanned education model.
Sponsors
University of Turku
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
75 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* patient aged 75 or over * inhabitant of Lieto * willing to participate
Exclusion criteria
* chronic atrial fibrillation * ongoing anticoagulant treatment * permanent institutional care
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| The willingness to the pulse palpation and competence independently learn to feel own pulse. | 1 month control visit | Based on learning session evaluated by nurse and objective evaluation of the learned skills by pulse-arm device and patient's pulse diary |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of patients with new atrial fibrillation detected during the study | At 1 year followup | During the 1 year followup visit information on atrial fibrillation is gathered form the patients records and by interview |
Other
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Quality of life | 1 year followup visit | EQ5D based evaluation |
| New atrial fibrillation at long-term followup | 5 year control | Data on atrial fibrillation and thromboembolic complications is gathered from patient records and patient interview |
Countries
Finland
Outcome results
None listed