Older women heart patients benefit from educational programs as a supplement to clinical care to help them significantly lower cardiac symptoms, lose weight and increase physical activity, a new study shows.
Different program formats produce different results for this notoriously difficult-to-treat patient population.
The U-M research suggests that if hospitals and clinicians offered specially designed group or individual programs, depending on the desired outcome, female heart patients older than 60 would need less health care and have a better quality of life.
Group programs worked significantly better when the patient’s goal was to lose weight and increase physical activity. Self-directed programs worked significantly better when the patient’s goal was to control symptoms, the study finds.
Noreen Clark, professor in the School of Public Health and director of the University’s Center for Managing Chronic Disease, says the results will help clinicians treat patients more successfully.
Co-authors on the study include Nancy Janz, associate director of the Center for Managing Chronic Disease; John Wheeler, professor of health management and policy with appointments at the Survey Research Center in the Institute for Social Research, and Pediatrics & Communicable Diseases at the Medical School; and J. Dodge, scientific administrator, Center for Managing Chronic Disease.
