Patient preference regarding assessment of clinical follow-up after percutaneous coronary intervention: The PAPAYA study

Aims: To keep patients in long-term clinical follow-up programmes after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), knowledge of the patient-preferred mode for follow-up assessment is crucial. We systematically assessed patient preference, and explored potential relationships with age and gender. Methods and results: In the prospective, observational PAPAYA study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02189070), 2,566 patients, treated by PCI between June 2008 and May 2012, were invited to participate in a postal survey on the patient-preferred mode (postal questionnaire, telephone or e-mail consultation) and frequency of follow-up assessment. A total of 1,797 (70.0%) patients responded. The vast majority preferred completing postal questionnaires (1,248 [69.9%]) as compared to telephone (240 [13.4%]) or e-mail-based approaches (227 [12.7%]) (p<0.001). With increasing age, there was a gradual decline in preference for e-mail (p<0.001); the youngest patients (≤60 years) preferred e-mail-based follow-up more often than the oldest (21.1% vs. 3.1%). Nevertheless, 79.9% of the youngest preferred to be approached in ways other than by e-mail. Women more often preferred approaches other than e-mail (94.1% vs. 87.3%, p<0.001). Conclusions: Patients showed a distinct preference for completing postal questionnaires rather than being approached by telephone or e-mail. Younger patients accepted e-mail-based follow-up more often, but the majority of the youngest patients still preferred approaches other than by e-mail.