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Patient experiences of web-based cognitive behavioral therapy for heart failure and depression: Qualitative Study
Lundgren, Johan Johansson, Peter Jaarsma, Tiny Andersson, Gerhard Kärner Köhler, Anita
Lundgren, Johan
Johansson, Peter
Jaarsma, Tiny
Andersson, Gerhard
Kärner Köhler, Anita
Abstract
Background: Web-based cognitive behavioral therapy (wCBT) has been proposed as a possible treatment for patients with heart failure and depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms are common in patients with heart failure and such symptoms are known to significantly worsen their health. Although there are promising results on the effect of wCBT, there is a knowledge gap regarding how persons with chronic heart failure and depressive symptoms experience wCBT. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore and describe the experiences of participating and receiving health care through a wCBT intervention among persons with heart failure and depressive symptoms. Methods: In this qualitative, inductive, exploratory, and descriptive study, participants with experiences of a wCBT program were interviewed. The participants were included through purposeful sampling among participants previously included in a quantitative study on wCBT. Overall, 13 participants consented to take part in this study and were interviewed via telephone using an interview guide. Verbatim transcripts from the interviews were qualitatively analyzed following the recommendations discussed by Patton in Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods: Integrating Theory and Practice. After coding each interview, codes were formed into categories. Results: Overall, six categories were identified during the analysis process. They were as follows: “Something other than usual health care,” “Relevance and recognition,” “Flexible, understandable, and safe,” “Technical problems,” “Improvements by real-time contact,” and “Managing my life better.” One central and common pattern in the findings was that participants experienced the wCBT program as something they did themselves and many participants described the program as a form of self-care. Conclusions: Persons with heart failure and depressive symptoms described wCBT as challenging. This was due to participants balancing the urge for real-time contact with perceived anonymity and not postponing the work with the program. wCBT appears to be a valuable tool for managing depressive symptoms.
Keywords
cognitive therapy, content analysis, depression, heart failure, internet, patient experience, telehealth
Date
2018
Type
Journal article
Journal
Journal of Medical Internet Research
Book
Volume
20
Issue
9
Page Range
1-15
Article Number
ACU Department
Faculty of Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
DOI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Open access
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access
Open