LITERATURE REVIEW ASSIGMENT - Assignment Example

This chronic condition is managed using two medical therapies; that is pharmacological and non-pharmacological management. Pharmacological therapy manages the condition within the hospital setting. The patient is put under medication and machine monitors to manage the condition. On the other hand, the non-pharmacological therapy is confined to patient education and intensive surveillance activity; emphasis is put shifting care from hospital to a primary care setting. Numerous studies have been conducted to examine which of the two therapies manage the condition more effectively.

These studies have shown that patients that comply with non-pharmacological recommendations reduce the risk of death caused by this condition. Compliance can be defined as the extent to which congestive heart failure patients’ behavior, in terms of managing the condition, are in line with those of a medical practitioner or health provider (Martje et al 2010). The non-pharmacological recommendations include diet,fluid restriction, weighing and exercising. The studies that were conducted included an 18 month follow up of the patients after they were discharged from hospital.

The compliance ratings of pharmacological recommendations range from 10% to 70% while those of non-pharmacological recommendations range between 12 % and 75%. Approximately 48% of the patients who comply with the non-pharmacological recommendations fully comply with all the four recommendations.An individual tally of the recommendations compliance reveals that about 80% of patients comply with weighing; 90% comply with diet and fluid restrictions (Holst, et.al 2008); and about 60% comply with exercises.

In elderly patients, compliance with the non-pharmacological recommendations prevents the reoccurrence of heart failure (Martje et al 2010). Patients who comply with these recommendations have fewer recommendations than non-compliant patients and those that spend in hospital are few. Patients who comply with the exercise and daily weighing recommendations often elongate their lives compared to those who don’t.This compliance also reduces the heart failure readmission. Isotonic exercise training has proven to have a positive effect on congestive heart failure patients, according to a study conducted on 30 male patients (Larsen, et.al. 2001).

Total compliance of the recommendations also reduces the rate of readmission due to heart failure by 56.2%. This figure may not be statistically significant but it ascertains that close follow-up of patients will reduce the likelihood of being readmitted due to heart failure (Rich, et.al. 1995). In addition, relaxation therapies have a positive psychic effect in older patients. It reduces the psychological distress, depression in particular, among the patients (Yu, et.al p. 78). It has been discovered that patients whose levels of sodium intake are high have a high chance of being readmitted.

This means that sodium intakes levels are consistent with the rate of readmission among the patients (Alves, et.al. p.446; Brooke, et.al. 2009). If heart failure patients begin using ACE-inhibitors during their stay in hospital, then their cognitive performance is expected to improve independently (Zuccala, et.al. p. 230). The main question of this topic is whether