Clinical & Experimental Cardiology
Open Access

Abstract

Impulse for Heart-Healthy Diet: A Short Health Psychological Intervention at the Cardiology Ward

Marion Platter, Cornelia Hölzl, Markus Hofer, Alexandra Huber and Stefan Höfer

Risk for and progress of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) can be influenced by minimizing modifiable risk factors. CHD patients were assigned to an intervention (IG) or control group (CG). A brief activating health-psychological intervention based on the Health-Action-Process-Approach (HAPA) was build into an educational group setting about heart-healthy nutrition. Patients were encouraged to make an action and coping plan for their future nutrition. Baseline assessment included perceived self-efficacy, intentional status, food consumption; follow-up data were collected two and six months after discharge. In total 201 patients participated (IG:N=143; 62±11.3 years, 64.3% male; CG:N=58; 64±10.3 years, 77.6% male). The IG reported a higher increase in vegetable fat consumption from baseline to two months (p<.05) and in low fat food and fish consumption from baseline to six months (both p<.01). Overall the program was feasibly to be carried out in an acute cardiac care hospital ward. One brief intervention based on the HAPA model could only change some dietary habits over a short period of time; follow-up sessions are necessary to have a larger impact on a wider set of dietary variables and habits over the long term.