Oral Anticoagulation and Self-management

Atrial Fibrillation, Embolism

An intervention program targeting patients and caregivers based on education about their condition and training in the use of portable coagulomenter to self monitor and training on the treatment adjustment to self manage, can be effective to enable patients in OACs to self manage as well as to identify determinant factors associated with the success and failure of the program.

BACKGROUND: The skills of patients on oral anticoagulants are critical for achieving good outcomes with this treatment. Self-management, or the capacity of patients to control their INR (International Normalized Ratio)level and adjust their treatment, is an effective strategy of treatment. Capacity of patients to self manage is determined by a range of factors. The identification of these factors would improve the design of self management programmes and in turn increase the number of patients able to self-manage. The objective of our study is to identify those factors that determine the ability of patients on oral anticoagulant therapy to achieve self-management of their treatment. METHOD: This will be a three year quasi- experimental prospective study with a control group. 333 patients on anticoagulant therapy from five health centres of the Basque Health Service are to be followed up for a period of six months each after the intervention, to assess their ability to self-test and self-manage. The intervention will consist of a patient training programme involving the provision of information and practical training concerning their condition and its treatment, as well as how to use a portable blood coagulation monitoring device and adjust their anticoagulant dose. DISCUSSION: Training programmes for self-management are effective in terms of enabling patients to acquire the necessary skills, though the level of success seems to depend on various patient-related factors. Given the proven benefits of self-management, it would be useful to properly characterise these factors and use this information to successfully increase the percentage of patients on on oral anticoagulants able to self-manage their own treatment.

Spain