The Effect of Telephone Based Interventions in the Management of Heart Failure

Heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and arthritis are the most common, costly, and preventable chronic diseases in the United States. Seventy percent of the total deaths in the U.S. are attributed to chronic diseases and fifty percent of that deaths are due to heart disease and stroke. Total expenditure for treatment of chronic diseases is $277 billion (Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion, 2012). Disease management is the key factor in managing these chronic conditions and improving the quality of life. Health care providers can help the patients in different ways to self-manage their disease. Telephone based interventional support is an easy and readily available tool which can be used for this purpose.
Justifies the Significance of the Specialty Choice
Heart failure is one of the most prevalent forms of chronic disease in the United States, leading to high rate of mortality and morbidity. The quality of life will be severely impaired as a result of heart failure. An estimate of 5.7 million people is suffering from this disease in America. Each year 400,000 to 700,000 new cases of the heart failure are diagnosed. Approximately 280,000 deaths are reported annually due to the heart failure related complications. Heart failure imposes a heavy financial hardship on the patients, their families and the community as a whole. The annual expenditure to treat heart failure is $34 billion and it will be tripled by 2030.This predicted threefold increase is due to the aging population (Heart Failure Fact Sheet, 2012). Heart failure is defined as the inability of the heart to pump enough blood that the body needs due to weakened heart muscles. This weakness happens due to injuries caused to the heart muscles by diseases like hypertension, heart attack, and diabetes or heart murmur (Heart Failure Fact Sheet, 2012). The symptoms of heart failure are shortness of breath, chest pain, tiredness and ankle edema. Because heart failure is a progressive, chronic disease, the

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