Theory-guided interventions for Chinese patients to adapt to heart failure: A quasi-experimental study.

The study was not randomised; patients were allocated by hospital campus, so baseline differences or campus effects cannot be ruled out. Participants were recruited by convenience sampling from one hospital, and the sample was mostly male and had low education, limiting generalisability. Attrition was 18.8%; five intervention patients were removed for missing more than four telephone contacts, and two patients died in the intervention group. Follow-up was only six months and readmission was self-reported. The intervention was a multi-component package, so the effect of any single component cannot be separated. The control group also received education, a booklet and periodic calls, so some improvements may reflect usual care plus attention. The paper did not clearly name one primary outcome; readmission was null while several other outcomes favoured the intervention.

This work was supported by the Health Commission of Zhejiang Province (grant number WKJ-ZJ-1925 and 2019ZD034). The authors declared no competing interests.

Do not conclude that nurse-led personalized care planning reduces heart failure readmissions. Readmission was not significantly different (one patient in the intervention group versus three in the control group; χ2=0.130, P=0.718). The positive findings were for quality of life, knowledge, self-care maintenance and coping, and the intervention combined several components, so no single component can be credited.