Interactive patient education via an audience response system in cardiac rehabilitation

Dietrich Stoevesandt; Andreas Weber; Andreas Wienke; Steffi Bethge; Viktoria Heinze; Simone Kowoll; Axel Schlitt

doi:10.1177/2050312120942118

Interactive patient education via an audience response system in cardiac rehabilitation

SAGE Open Med. 2020 Aug 25:8:2050312120942118. doi: 10.1177/2050312120942118. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Dietrich Stoevesandt¹, Andreas Weber², Andreas Wienke³, Steffi Bethge⁴, Viktoria Heinze⁴, Simone Kowoll⁵, Axel Schlitt^{4

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department and Outpatient Clinic for Radiology, University Hospital Halle (Saale), Halle (Saale), Germany.
² Institute for Health and Nursing Science, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany.
³ Institute of Medical Epidemiology, Biometry, and Information Technology, University Hospital Halle (Saale), Halle (Saale), Germany.
⁴ Paracelsus-Harz-Klinik Bad Suderode, Quedlinburg, Germany.
⁵ Coordination Center for Clinical Studies, Medical Faculty, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany.
⁶ Medical Faculty, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany.

Abstract

Objectives: Patient education and compliance play an important role in the success of rehabilitation in cardiovascular diseases. The aim of this study is to analyze whether interactive learning methods, in this study, the audience response system with a "clicker," can improve the learning success of patients during and after their rehabilitation process.

Methods: In a randomized, prospective cohort study, a total of 260 patients were randomized to either an interactive training group using Athens audience response system or to a control group without the use of audience response system during the educational sessions. Patients were taught and tested on four different topics concerning their primary disease: heart failure, arterial hypertension, prevention of cardiovascular diseases, and coronary heart disease. After each session, the patients had to answer questions on the previously taught topics via questionnaires. These questions were asked again at the day of discharge, as well as 3 and 12 months after discharge. Additional information on the patients' health, plus their mental status, was gathered with the help of further questionnaires (HADS and SF-12).

Results: A total of 260 patients (201 men and 59 women) were recruited. The patients were on average 61.1 ± 11 years old. A significant short-term effect on the patients' knowledge about their disease was found immediately after the educational sessions in the intervention group. However, there was no long-term effect in either the intervention or control group. Although there was no statistical significance found in any of the observations, a positive short-term effect on learning capacity as well as positive trends in mental and physical health after discharge could be found in patients after the use of audience response system during their rehabilitation.

Conclusion: This study provides interesting and new data on the use of an interactive learning method for patients to gain knowledge about their primary disease and eventually improve their physical and mental health status in a long-term perspective. By implementing different and new ways of teaching and interaction during the hospitalization, not only patients, but also medical staff and caregivers could benefit.

Keywords: Cardiac rehabilitation; audience response system; patient education; questionnaire.