Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Old patients with heart failure are a vulnerable patient group facing various challenges, specifically during the transition from hospital to home. Non-biomedical factors, or "contextual factors", such as patient attitudes and social support, can influence treatment adherence. However, their role in clinical interactions is not well understood. This study aimed to identify and describe how and when these factors manifest during clinical interactions in the hospital-to-home transition. METHODS: We audio-recorded 42 old patients with heart failure admitted to hospital interacting with their physicians at: 1. the first ward visit, 2. discharge visit, 3. first primary care visit after discharge. Based on an umbrella review, we developed a list of 48 factors known to affect adherence among cardiovascular patients. Patient utterances from the recordings containing information on one of these factors (contextual indicators (CI)) were extracted and categorized according to the type of factor, mentioned impact, and being a facilitator or barrier to adherence. RESULTS: From the 105 audio recordings, 742 CI were identified, each interaction containing an average of 7 CI (SD = 4.2; median = 6). CI considered to have a potential impact on patient's life or adherence were overall evenly split between facilitators (n = 82, 42%) and barriers (n = 115, 58%), and both types of CI appeared in most patient trajectories. The most salient barrier CI was related to patients' concerns regarding medications side effects and regimen complexity, while CI facilitators were more commonly related to patients' knowledge, motivation and social support. DISCUSSION: The findings from this study provide insights for clinicians to the main types of non-biomedical factors revealed by old patients with heart failure in medical interactions, which affect their treatment adherence. Clinicians should particularly consider patient concerns regarding medications' side effects and the regimen complexity as important aspects to discuss, leveraging on motivational and social resources if present.