A Meta-Analysis Assessing the Effect of Nurse-Led Telecoaching on the Psychological Outcomes and Care Quality of Patients Suffering From Heart Failure

This updated meta-analysis set out to investigate the effect of nurse-led telecoaching on anxiety, depression, heart failure knowledge, self-care, and quality of life among patients suffering from heart failure. We systematically searched PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Web of Science up to June 10, 2025, to find randomized controlled trials evaluating the effect of nurse-led telecoaching on anxiety, depression, heart failure knowledge, self-care, and quality of life among patients suffering from heart failure. We adopted a random-effects model to pool data and employed the revised RoB2 tool to determine the risk of bias. In total, 19 studies with 2917 participants were included in this meta-analysis. We found that despite some improvements compared to usual care, nurse-led telecoaching did not significantly change the heart failure knowledge of patients [standardized mean difference (SMD) 2.09, 95% confidence interval (CI) (-0.01-4.18), I2 = 99.41%], depression [SMD -0.27, 95% CI (-0.59-0.04), I2 = 78.21%], anxiety [SMD -0.06, 95% CI (-0.22-0.10), I2 = 0.00%], self-care [SMD 0.12, 95% CI (-0.67-0.91), I2 = 98.45%], and quality of life [SMD -0.33, 95% CI (-0.82-0.17), I2 = 96.53%] scores among patients with heart failure. Despite some degrees of improvement, nurse-led telecoaching did not significantly improve the heart failure knowledge, anxiety, depression, self-care, and quality of life of those suffering from heart failure.