The Additional Effect of Lifestyle Coaching to the Regular Cardiac Rehabilitation Program On  Lifestyle Improvements: A study on the additional effect of ‘lifestyle coaching’ to the regular  cardiac rehabilitation (CR) components ‘FIT’ and ‘PEP’ on eight  lifestyle factors in the short and long term – The BENEFIT study

Lifestyle-focused cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is recognized as one of the most effective strategies of secondary prevention for cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients. Therefore, optimizing this approach is essential to mitigate the impact of CVD and improve patients’ outcomes. Hence, the research question for this thesis is: ‘What is the additional effect of lifestyle coaching on top of the regular CR program on eight lifestyle factors in the short and long term?’ It is hypothesized that the addition of lifestyle coaching to the regular CR program will have a positive effect on lifestyle improvements among CR participants, lifestyle coaching will have a larger effect on increasing physical activity than on the other lifestyle elements and that the effects of lifestyle coaching on physical activity will remain at the one-year follow-up. This thesis is part of a larger research project: the BENEFIT study. The research design of the study is longitudinal. Participants were 587 cardiac...Show moreLifestyle-focused cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is recognized as one of the most effective strategies of secondary prevention for cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients. Therefore, optimizing this approach is essential to mitigate the impact of CVD and improve patients’ outcomes. Hence, the research question for this thesis is: ‘What is the additional effect of lifestyle coaching on top of the regular CR program on eight lifestyle factors in the short and long term?’ It is hypothesized that the addition of lifestyle coaching to the regular CR program will have a positive effect on lifestyle improvements among CR participants, lifestyle coaching will have a larger effect on increasing physical activity than on the other lifestyle elements and that the effects of lifestyle coaching on physical activity will remain at the one-year follow-up. This thesis is part of a larger research project: the BENEFIT study. The research design of the study is longitudinal. Participants were 587 cardiac patients, referred to rehabilitation centres, who filled in an online questionnaire at three different moments. Furthermore, the design is factorial and tested sixteen hierarchical multiple regression analyses; the addition of lifestyle coaching on the eight lifestyle factors separately at two measurements. The results showed that the addition of lifestyle coaching to the regular CR program only significantly reduced participants’ alcohol consumption, both in the short (F change = 3.879, (1, 333), β = -.070, p =.049) and long term (F change = 10.050, (1,219), β = -.136, p =.002). Moreover, the addition of lifestyle coaching did not lead to a greater effect on physical activity compared to the other lifestyle factors, in either the short (β = -.084, p = .136) and long term (β = .112, p = .985). In conclusion, lifestyle coaching in addition to the regular CR program did not have an additional effect on the lifestyle factors in this study, except for alcohol consumption, in both the short and long term. Contrary to the expectation, the addition of lifestyle coaching did not have a significant effect on improving physical activity. A possible explanation may be the pre-existing effectiveness of the regular CR program in improving physical activity through the FIT sessions. Additional research could further investigate how to elevate lifestyle improvements through CR to minimize the burden of secondary CVD.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections