Enhancing Implementation of Lifestyle Change Specialists within Cardiac Rehabilitation to Enhance Behavior Change for Individuals with Comorbidities
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People with cardiac conditions often also have comorbidities such as diabetes. Many of the key risks for these chronic diseases are behavioral lifestyle factors: tobacco use, poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and excessive alcohol use. Interventions aimed at modifying these lifestyle factors focus on regular physical activity, stress management, sleep, nutrition, social connections, and limiting substance use. Coaching is one strategy that has been shown to effectively improve implementation and maintenance of lifestyle behavior change.
Lifestyle coaching employs patient-centered strategies to assist in making lifestyle behavior changes through self-directed, goal setting that aligns with the individual’s values. Common targets are nutrition, physical activity, stress management, sleep, and substance use, which are well aligned with both cardiac conditions and diabetes. This non-billable service can accompany other clinical services with the intention of reducing clinician burden and intensifying support to make daily health behavior change that cannot be supported effectively in the traditional care delivery models.
This project evaluates the effectiveness of implementation strategies for referrals to Lifestyle Change Specialist (LCS) services within Cardiac Rehabilitation. Secondarily we will evaluate the effectiveness of LCS services on the biometric outcomes, self-reported patient outcomes, and behavior change for patients enrolled through the Parkview Heart Institute Cardiac Rehabilitation Program.
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