Background and Aims:

This paper will describe and present original one-year follow-up data from the 5-year "Cardiovascular Health Best Practice Project" (CHBPP), a large (n = 611) RCT that tests whether cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors can be lowered using a lowintensity, widely diffusable lifestyle intervention based upon an expert patient model.

Methods & Materials:

The Simon Fraser Heart Health Report Card System(C) is an intervention that provides a report card for subjects and their primary care physicians, and tailored behavioural lifestyle counseling provided over the telephone by trained health professionals in lifestyle areas including smoking, physical activity, nutrition, stress and medication compliance.

Results:

Preliminary one-year follow-up data will be presented separately for the primary (n = 310) and secondary (n = 301) prevention arms of the RCT. Analyses of these data lend support to the efficacy of this intervention. For the primary prevention group, the mean Framingham 10-year absolute risk score for treatment subjects decreased approximately 24%, whereas the control group risk score did not change. The treatment/control difference over time was statistically significant after controlling for age, sex, SF-36, education, income and living arrangement using ANOVA. Statistically significant group differences over time were also found for total cholesterol, nutrition level, level of physical activity, and blood pressure at the bivariate level. For the secondary prevention group, no statistically significant associations were found except for physical activity.

Conclusions:

The findings are discussed in terms of their clinical significance and their implications for diffusion at the population level. The results of this study provide evidence of CVD risk reduction, using a lifestyle intervention.

Section Description

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