Disease management produces limited quality-of-life improvements in patients with congestive heart failure: evidence from a randomized trial in community-dwelling patients.

Background: Disease management programs are reported to improve clinical and quality-of-life outcomes while simultaneously lowering healthcare costs.

Objective: To examine the effectiveness of disease management in improving health-related quality of life (HRQL) among patients with heart failure beyond 12 months.

Methods: A total of 1069 community-dwelling patients 18 years and older in South Texas with echocardiographic evidence of congestive heart failure were randomly assigned to disease management, augmented disease management, and control groups.