Effects of a Comprehensive Lifestyle Improvement Program for Middle-aged Women with Cardio-cerebrovascular Disease-related Risk Factors

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to evaluate effects of a comprehensive lifestyle improvement program for middle-aged women with cardio-cerebrovascular disease (CVD)-related risk factors. METHODS: The research adopted a non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The number of participants was 18 in the experimental group and 16 in the control group sampled among middle-aged women who had CVD-related risk factors residing in a community. The experimental group participated in a four-session comprehensive lifestyle promotion program, which consisted of lectures, demonstrations, small-group meetings and telephone-counseling. The effects of the program were evaluated by measuring knowledge, attitude, health behavior, and self-efficacy for CVD prevention. RESULTS: The experimental group showed a significant increase in self-efficacy for CVD prevention compared to the control group. There was no significant increase in knowledge, attitude, and health behavior. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the comprehensive lifestyle improvement program was effective in improving self-efficacy for CVD prevention. There is a need to develop more effective lifestyle improvement programs designed to improve knowledge, attitude, and health behavior for CVD prevention. In further research, a follow-up evaluation is also needed to investigate any delayed effects on targeted variables among which no significant differences emerged immediately after the completion of the program.