Lifestyle Change
Strategic Moments: Identifying Opportunities to Engage Clients in Attending Cardiac Rehabilitation and Maintaining Lifestyle Change
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Susan Marilyn Fletcher
There has been extensive investigation of attendance rates at cardiac rehabilitation (CR) but little attention to client reasoning around attendance. This study explored participants’ decision-making drivers for attendance or non-attendance at CR programs available in rural Victoria, Australia. All new patients referred to the CR programs at either the local hospital or community health service over a 6-month period were invited to participate and were interviewed before, after and at 6 months post CR. Content analysis was used to identify and group common themes that emerged from the semi-structured interviews. Eighty four of the 114 patients referred agreed to participate in the study. Multiple barriers or facilitators affected the decisions of all clients. Facilitators identified included: invitation and information about participation in CR; a person centered approach to CR provision and provision of on-going support. Significant decision-making points identified were: following the cardiac event; before and after hospital-based CR; before and after community-based CR, and at six months post the cardiac event. This study provided the opportunity to hear participants’ voices describing their decisions around CR attendance after a cardiac event. They highlighted the complexity of issues confronting them and suggested improvements to optimise their attendance and to maintain lifestyle changes.
Increasing Physical Activity and Social Inclusion for People with High and Complex Support Needs and Disabilities through LIFE: Local Inclusive Fitness For Everyone
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eli Ristevski, Carole Broxham
Low levels of physical activity have been consistently demonstrated for people with profound or severe disabilities. Daily activities often focus on health needs or communication difficulties resulting in people missing out on vital physical and recreational activities. The LIFE program aims to increase physical activity, promote health and well-being and social inclusion for people with high and complex support needs and disabilities through participation in physical activity with members of the community. A 16 week Pilates program was undertaken with clients from a community-based disability education and training service as well as members of the community. Support workers assisted clients as necessary. Participants joined for refreshments and discussion after each session. Semi-structured interviews and an adapted interview tool for people with limited communication were used to collect data. Thematic analysis was undertaken. All participants had a positive experience in the program with an overarching feeling of inclusion and purpose. Clients noticed overall change in their physical and emotional wellbeing. Community participants felt a sense of increased social purpose. All participants welcomed the diverse range of people and abilities in the class and felt it was an opportunity to make meaningful social connections.
Occupational Health Promotion : Customized Designs Using Cardiovascular Diseases as an Example
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Thomas Klein, Renate Prof. Dr. Oberhoffer
The goal of the study was to show that an individual occupational health concept decreases the risk of heart attacks especially for high risk subjects. Therefore, a sample of 140 employees was divided into subgroups with respect to their individual 10 – year risk of suffering a heart attack. This risk will be calculated with the PROCAM Score, which is one of the three most common scores in this regard. The PROCAM Score was prospectively determined in three different risk groups, between 2015-2018 (Low Risk Group n=40, Medium Risk Group n=24, High Risk Group n=26). All employees were individually guided by life style recommendations. Randomized control groups without any interventions were build. Descriptive statistical methods as well as one and two sample-tests were used for data analyses. The first results confirm the hypotheses of a decreasing PROCAM Score in the highest risk group during the cause of the study. The results of the ongoing data acquisition will be presented. Currently, the public health approach represents the gold standard for preventive measures. However, due to its lack of specificity, this approach frequently neglects the individual needs of employees, potentially leading to an ineffective health promotion. Our individual approach has the potential to overcome these drawbacks.
