• Marie Bakitas, J Nicholas Dionne-Odom, Salpy V Pamboukian, Jose Tallaj, Elizabeth Kvale, Keith M Swetz, Jennifer Frost, Rachel Wells, Andres Azuero, Konda Keebler, Imatullah Akyar, Deborah Ejem, Karen Steinhauser, Tasha Smith, Raegan Durant, and Alan T Kono.
• School of Nursing and Department of Medicine, Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA. mbakitas@uab.edu.
• BMC Palliat Care. 2017 Aug 31; 16 (1): 45.

BackgroundEarly palliative care (EPC) is recommended but rarely integrated with advanced heart failure (HF) care. We engaged patients and family caregivers to study the feasibility and site differences in a two-site EPC trial, ENABLE CHF-PC (Educate, Nurture, Advise, Before Life Ends Comprehensive Heartcare for Patients and Caregivers).MethodsWe conducted an EPC feasibility study (4/1/14-8/31/15) for patients with NYHA Class III/IV HF and their caregivers in academic medical centers in the northeast and southeast U.S. The EPC intervention comprised: 1) an in-person outpatient palliative care consultation; and 2) telephonic nurse coach sessions and monthly calls. We collected patient- and caregiver-reported outcomes of quality of life (QOL), symptom, health, anxiety, and depression at baseline, 12- and 24-weeks. We used linear mixed-models to assess baseline to week 24 longitudinal changes.ResultsWe enrolled 61 patients and 48 caregivers; between-site demographic differences included age, race, religion, marital, and work status. Most patients (69%) and caregivers (79%) completed all intervention sessions; however, we noted large between-site differences in measurement completion (38% southeast vs. 72% northeast). Patients experienced moderate effect size improvements in QOL, symptoms, physical, and mental health; caregivers experienced moderate effect size improvements in QOL, depression, mental health, and burden. Small-to-moderate effect size improvements were noted in patients' hospital and ICU days and emergency visits.ConclusionsBetween-site demographic, attrition, and participant-reported outcomes highlight the importance of intervention pilot-testing in culturally diverse populations. Observations from this pilot feasibility trial allowed us to refine the methodology of an in-progress, full-scale randomized clinical efficacy trial.Trial RegistrationClinicaltrials.gov NCT03177447 (retrospectively registered, June 2017).

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