Suchergebnisse

Purpose. To track the 2-year movement of cardiac rehabilitation patients through the stages of change for dietary fat reduction and increasing fruit and vegetable intake. Design. A cross-sectional, longitudinal evaluation of a convenience sample of cardiac rehabilitation patients. Setting. Department of Pulmonary and Cardiac Rehabilitation, Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, Greensboro, North Carolina. Subjects. Subjects (n = 118) were predominately white, overweight, married men with a history of tobacco use. Intervention. Group nutrition education sessions for 12 weeks. Measures. Stage of change assessments for dietary fat reduction and increasing fruit and vegetable intake were performed at the start (baseline), conclusion (3 months), and 2 years after cardiac rehabilitation. Results. Baseline staging demonstrated patients' efforts to reduce dietary fat intake (preparation, 10.2%; action, 35.6%; maintenance, 47.5%). The assessment at 2 years staged 87.3% of the population in the maintenance stage. In contrast, the precontemplation (30.0%), contemplation (7.6%), and preparation (49.2%) stages dominated baseline staging for modifying fruit and vegetable intake. Patients in the precontemplation and contemplation stages increased to 58.5% at 2 years. Conclusions. Cardiac rehabilitation patients are in different stages for two food behaviors linked to the same illness. Results support the appropriateness of nutrition education that emphasizes instrumental information for affecting fat reduction behaviors. Modifying fruit and vegetable intake behaviors is more appropriately addressed with noninstrumental interventions that emphasize health benefits and barriers to change.

Purpose. To determine the stages of change for dietary fat and fruit and vegetable intake of cardiac patients entering a rehabilitation program. Design. A cross-sectional study using a convenience sample of newly admitted cardiac rehabilitation patients. Setting. Department of Pulmonary and Cardiac Rehabilitation, Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, Greensboro, North Carolina. Subjects. Subjects (n = 226) were predominantly men, Caucasian, married, smokers with 9 to 12 years of education, and with primary diagnoses of coronary artery bypass graft. Measures. Stages of change and food frequency questionnaires were completed by subjects upon admission to cardiac rehabilitation. Results. Subjects in action and maintenance stages for dietary fat reduction comprised 78.7% of the population. Subjects' percentage of energy from fat decreased linearly from the precontemplation stage (38.8%) to the maintenance stage (30.9%). Eighty-one percent of subjects were in precontemplation/contemplation for increasing fruit and vegetable intake. Daily servings of fruits and vegetables ranged from 2.6 for precontemplation to 5.1 for maintenance subjects. Age, body mass index (BMI), education, and family history for coronary disease were unrelated to stage of change for the dependent variables. Conclusions. Patients were in different stages of change for two nutritional behaviors linked to the same disease. Results support the need to assess patients for food behaviors and apply different educational interventions for each food behavior.