Heart Failure Self Care Education in Rwanda
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: HF Education.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Heart Failure. Basic parameters: from 10 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- Rwanda
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
Unsure about the terms? Read our patient guide →
Overview
In Rwanda, patients with heart failure may have low health education about their condition. Heart failure care requires active patient involvement. Self-care of heart failure requires healthy lifestyle, attention to symptoms, proper action when new symptoms develop. However, many patients may choose to stop taking medications when they are feeling well, or disregard new symptoms when they develop and delaying care until their condition is more severe. Educating patients in self-care for heart failure can be achieved by clinical staff with the support of patient handbooks or flip books. Self-care education materials have been developed by the research team in Haiti and have been adapted for Rwanda. This study will use a cluster, stepped wedge design. Patients are already in clusters based on their health facility. The order of implementation will be randomized by the cluster. The primary outcome is heart failure knowledge assessed pre- and post-intervention through a structured survey.
Interventions
- Other HF Education
The non-communicable disease clinic nurse educator will deliver the education. An illustrated flip book to guide the education. Participants will be given a simplified handout summarizing key educational objectives. These educational tools are translated in Kinyarwanda.
Primary outcome measures
- Self-care of Heart Failure (HF) [Time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, 3 months, 6 months]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Participants living with heart failure followed at non-communicable disease clinics across three district hospitals (DHs) i- Butaro, Kirehe, and Rwinkwavu
- Able to provide informed consent; for minors, able to provide assent with parent or caregiver consent.
- Pediatric participants must be aged ≥10 years; consent will be obtained from a parent or caregiver, with age-appropriate assent from the child.
Exclusion criteria
- Unable to provide informed consent
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: No
Study design
- Allocation
- Non-randomized
- Model
- Sequential
- Masking
- Open label
- Primary purpose
- Health services research
Study locations
Rwanda · 1 center
- District Hospitals Butaro, Kirehe, and Rwinkwavu — Kigali
Identifiers
NCT: NCT07722468 · H-45872