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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Heart Failure and Transplantation
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2024.1432588

Care manager role for older multimorbid heart failure patients' needs in relation to psychological distress and quality of life: a cross-sectional study

Provisionally accepted
Sara Gostoli Sara Gostoli 1Regina Subach Regina Subach 1Francesco Guolo Francesco Guolo 2Francesco Bernardini Francesco Bernardini 1Alessandra Cammarata Alessandra Cammarata 1Graziano Gigante Graziano Gigante 1Birgit H. Belhap Birgit H. Belhap 3,4Diego Della Riva Diego Della Riva 2Stefano Urbinati Stefano Urbinati 2Chiara Rafanelli Chiara Rafanelli 1*On behalf of ESCAPE Consortium On behalf of ESCAPE Consortium 5
  • 1 Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
  • 2 Division of Cardiology, Bellaria Hospital, AUSL Bologna, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
  • 3 Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Göttingen Medical Centre, Göttingen, Germany
  • 4 Center for Behavioral Health, Media, and Technology, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, United States
  • 5 Department of Psychology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: There are few studies investigating patients’ needs in healthcare focusing on disease severity and psychological characteristics of elderly heart failure (HF) patients with multimorbidity, specifically addressed by a care manager (CM). Aim(s): To explore the role of a CM dealing with elderly multimorbid HF patients’ needs/preferences according to NYHA class, ejection fraction, psychological/psychosomatic distress and quality of life (QoL), utilizing a Blended Collaborative Care (BCC) approach (ESCAPE; Grant agreement No 945377). Methods: Cue cards, self-reported questionnaires, and a semi-structured interview were used to collect data. Results: Twenty-five Italian patients (mean age±SD = 77.5±6.68) were enrolled between June 2021 and March 2022. The most relevant patients’ needs to be addressed by a CM were: education (e.g., on medical comorbidities), individual treatment tailoring (e.g., higher number of appointments with cardiologists) and symptom monitoring. Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of targeting HF patients' needs according to psychological characteristics, whose healthcare requires person-centered care with CM assistance. In view of ESCAPE BCC intervention, a CM should consider specific patients’ needs of elderly multimorbid HF patients with psychological, psychosomatic distress, particularly somatization, and lower QoL to achieve a more personalized health care pathway. Study registration: The «Evaluation of a patient-centred biopsychosocial blended collaborative care pathway for the treatment of multi-morbid elderly patients» (ESCAPE) study has been registered at the University of Göttingen Medical Centre (UMG Reg. No 02853) and the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS00025120).

    Keywords: care manager, Patient's needs, blended collaborative care, psychological distress, psychosomatic distress, Somatization, Quality of Life

    Received: 14 May 2024; Accepted: 02 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gostoli, Subach, Guolo, Bernardini, Cammarata, Gigante, Belhap, Della Riva, Urbinati, Rafanelli and ESCAPE Consortium. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Chiara Rafanelli, Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

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