Frontloading Home Physical Therapy Visits for Patients With Heart Failure

Abstract

Frontloading home care visits has been found to be effective in the nursing profession but has not been investigated in physical therapy (PT) practice. This study aimed to examine the impact of frontloading home PT visits on function in persons with heart failure (HF). This was a prospective multi-center randomized controlled trial with blinded raters. A total of 82 ambulatory patients with a primary diagnosis of HF discharged from an acute care facility to home care participated in the study. Subjects were randomly allocated to an experimental frontloaded group (FLG) or control group (CG) for 4 weeks. FLG visit frequencies were five sessions per week for 2 weeks, and three sessions per week for 2 weeks. The CG received two sessions per week for 4 weeks. Functional measures including the 2-minute step test (2MST), 2-minute walk test (2MWT), gait speed (GS), Timed Up and Go (TUG), and 30-second chair rise test (30-CRT) were collected at the onset of care, at the end of 2 weeks and 4 weeks. The groups were statistically similar at baseline for all measures. All subjects significantly improved scores in all functional measures over time, within-subject main effect (p < .01). Significant between-subject effects were noted for 30-CRT (p = .04). Interaction effects were noted for GS (p = .03) and TUG test (p = .02). This is the first study to report meaningful improvements in function in individuals with HF. Significant treatment effect differences between the FLG and CG were found for GS, TUG, and 30-CRT. Future studies should examine the use of a standardized intervention to validate the effectiveness of frontloading home visits on quality of life and readmission rates.