At a glance
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Feasibility and Implementation of a Healthy Lifestyles Program: A Pilot Study
In Brief
A clinical study evaluating Health and wellness learning sessions, Brainstorming group sessions, and 3 other interventions for Health Behavior and 5 related conditions. Completed, enrolled 30 participants across 1 site.
Detailed Summary
Chronic conditions, such as obesity and diabetes, are increasing worldwide. Lifestyle changes (e.g., physical activity, healthy diet, sufficient sleep, managing stress, smoking cessation) are often recommended to prevent or manage these conditions, but changing habits is difficult. Mental health can play a role in the ability to seek out and follow through on the changes necessary to achieve or maintain a healthy lifestyle, yet this aspect is rarely addressed, and access to mental health services is often limited. Furthermore, individuals are influenced by factors at the individual, interpersonal, community and policy levels (e.g., lack of socialization, unsafe neighborhoods). These factors can act as barriers and need to be addressed in order for individuals to make sustainable lifestyle changes. A new year-long person-centered healthy lifestyles program is proposed to address the "how to" gap in making lifestyle changes through a combination of individual and group sessions. The feasibility and implementation of this new program will be evaluated through a pilot study looking at the full healthy lifestyles program compared to a less intensive version of the program. The study's hypothesis is that the full program will be feasible, acceptable and more effective for helping participants move across stages of change and for meeting their goals than the less intensive program.
Study Details
Timeline
Interventions
The health and wellness learning sessions provide a platform for concepts from a variety of health behaviour theories and CBT to be combined with evidence- and practice-based recommendations for healthy lifestyles. They provide the basis for participants' development of an individualized action plan. The sessions will last one hour and participants will receive them in a group setting, 18 times throughout the duration of the program. Specifically, the sessions will be delivered during weeks: 1-8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40, 44, 48.
The brainstorming group sessions allow for facilitated discussions where individuals explore barriers and facilitators to achieving their goals and provide an interpersonal component to the program through the building of social interactions. Participants will also receive help in finding community programs to support healthy lifestyles. These sessions will last one hour and participants will receive them in a group setting, 30 times throughout the duration of the program. Specifically, these sessions will be delivered during weeks: 9-11, 13-15, 17-19, 21-23, 25-27, 29-31, 33-35, 37-39, 41-43, 45-47.
Monthly individual sessions with a family physician trained in medical CBT, a dietician and a physical therapist help individuals tailor their action plans and recommendations to their particular circumstances and provide supports based on their needs. The initial session will last 3 hours and occur at baseline. The follow-up sessions will last 1 hour.
Participants in both arms will develop health goals. Several components of these goals will be measured throughout the study, including the stage of change, self-efficacy and actual goal achievement. In the more intensive program arm, participants will develop health goals and learn about how to meet those goals through the group and individual sessions. In the less intensive program arm, participants will receive support in developing health goals from a research assistant trained in theories of health behaviour and in goal setting at baseline, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 months. The initial goal setting session will be provided within a time period of 2 hours, and the follow-up sessions will be provided within one hour time periods.
Participants in both arm will be asked to maintain a physical activity journal and a nutrition journal for a week each every three months. These journals help participants reflect on current behaviours and areas for change.