Home-based cardiac rehabilitation for heart failure, England

The Rehabilitation Enablement in Chronic Heart Failure (REACH-HF) intervention is a home-based cardiac rehabilitation programme that was developed with input from healthcare professionals, people living with heart failure and carers.¹ It includes:

• a manual with chair-based and walking exercises to be performed at least three times per week
• an interactive booklet to help people living with heart failure track their progress based on symptoms, physical activity and self-care behaviour
• a manual for carers to support their own wellbeing and improve understanding of heart failure
• telephone and in-person support from trained cardiac nurses and physiotherapists.²

Compared with standard heart failure care, the REACH-HF programme improved quality of life and self-care behaviour.² As it was also shown to be cost-effective,^{2 3} in May 2019 it was rolled out across four NHS sites in England and Northern Ireland.⁴ The effectiveness of the programme has led to expert calls for rapid adoption across the UK.⁵ The programme was also identified as a potential method to adapt cardiac rehabilitation services during the COVID-19 pandemic.⁶

References

1. Greaves CJ, Wingham J, Deighan C, et al. 2016. Optimising self-care support for people with heart failure and their caregivers: development of the Rehabilitation Enablement in Chronic Heart Failure (REACH-HF) intervention using intervention mapping. Pilot and Feasibility Studies 2(1): 37
2. Dalal HM, Taylor RS, Jolly K, et al. 2019. The effects and costs of home-based rehabilitation for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: The REACH-HF multicentre randomized controlled trial. Eur J Prev Cardiol 26(3): 262-72
3. Taylor RS, Sadler S, Dalal HM, et al. 2019. The cost effectiveness of REACH-HF and home-based cardiac rehabilitation compared with the usual medical care for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: A decision model-based analysis. European journal of preventive cardiology 26(12): 1252-61
4. van Beurden S. 2019. Succesful home-based heart rehabiliation programme rolled out. Available from: http://sites.exeter.ac.uk/reach-hf/blog/2019/05/22/successful-home-based-heart-rehabilitation-programme-rolled-out/ [Accessed 13/08/20]
5. Dalal HM, Taylor RS, Doherty PJ. 2019. Home-based rehabilitation for heart failure: we need to act now. European journal of preventive cardiology: 10.1177/2047487319836515:
6. Alliance for Heart Failure. 2020. Written evidence submitted by the Alliance for Heart Failure (DEL0262). United Kingdom: Alliance for Heart Failure