Effects of Partners Together in Health Intervention on Physical Activity and Healthy Eating Behaviors

Abstract

Background Despite proven efficacy of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) in helping patients initiate physical activity and healthy eating changes, less than 50% of CR participants maintain changes 6 months later. Objective The objective of this feasibility study was to test the Partners Together in Health (PaTH) Intervention versus usual care (UC) in improving physical activity and healthy eating behaviors in coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery patients and spouses. Methods An experimental, two-group (n = 17 couples/group), repeated measures design was used. CABG patients in both groups participated in Phase II outpatient CR. Spouses in the PaTH group attended CR with the patient and were asked to make the same physical activity and healthy eating changes as patients. Spouses in the control group attended educational classes with patients. It was theorized that “two persons would be better than one” at making changes and sticking with them long-term. Physical activity behavior was measured using the Actiheart accelerometer; the activity biomarker was an exercise tolerance test. Eating behavior was measured using 3-day food records; the biomarker was the lipid profile. Data were collected at baseline (entrance in CR), 3-months (post-CR), and 6-months. Changes over time were examined using Mann-Whitney U statistics and effect sizes. Results The PaTH intervention was successful primarily in demonstrating improved trends in healthy eating behavior for patients and spouses. No differences were found between the PaTH and UC patients or spouses at 3 or 6 months in the number of minutes/week of physical activity. By 6 months, patients in both groups were, on average, below the national guidelines for PA recommendations (≥ 150 min/week at > 3 METs). Conclusions The couple-focused PaTH intervention demonstrated promise in offsetting the decline in dietary adherence typically seen 6 months after CR.

Moving in Sync: Hourly Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior are Synchronized in Couples

“…This dovetails with previous research indicating that persons were more likely to increase their PA if their partner had done so [6,18]. Such findings support recent innovations in PA interventions that recognize the importance of the partnership for PA [50,51]. Indeed, interventions that include the partner may be more effective in enhancing PA than individualbased interventions-even if PA change is quantified on the individual level [52].…”

Couples' Experiences With Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors After Cardiac Rehabilitation

“…A purposive subsample of 11 couples (patient and spouse) was obtained from the sample of couples (n = 34) that participated in a larger clinical trial. 13 A maximal variation strategy 16 was used to recruit subsample participants to achieve variation in gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status in relation to role (patient-husband, partner-wife versus patient-wife, partner-husband; Hispanic patient and spouse). All patients had undergone coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery at either an academic medical center or community hospital located in the Midwestern United States.…”

“…Existing couple-oriented interventions involve the spouse as a way to be a benefit to the cardiac patient 9 , despite evidence that the spouse would also benefit from making and maintaining diet and PA behavior changes. 10–12 In a recent couple-focused intervention where patients and spouses in the experimental group participated in CR together and spouses were asked to make the same healthy eating and PA changes as patients, Yates et al 13 found promising preliminary effects of the intervention for improving adherence to healthy eating and PA beyond CR. Embedded within this clinical trial, a qualitative study was conducted to describe the couple-focused facilitators and barriers to healthy eating and PA behaviors in patients and spouses after CR.…”

Changes over time in caregiving demand and difficulty in spousal caregivers of coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients

“…This descriptive repeated-measures study was a secondary analysis of existing data collected as part of a randomized controlled trial (RCT). In the parent RCT, patients and spouses in the experimental group participated in cardiac rehabilitation (CR) together and spouses were asked to make the same healthy eating and physical activity changes as patients (Yates et al, 2015). Data were collected at three time points: pre-CR (baseline, early hospital discharge) and post-CR (3 month), and three months later (6 month time point).…”