The impact of a disease-management program on the symptom experience of older women with heart disease.
This study describes the symptom experience of 570 older women with heart disease and evaluates a disease-management program's impact on symptoms over time. Women were randomly assigned to either usual care or a 4-week program ("Women take PRIDE") designed to improve self-regulation skills by focusing on increasing physical activity. At 4 months follow-up, program women, compared to controls, reported fewer total symptoms (p = 0.01) and decreased symptom frequency (p = 0.02) and bothersomeness (p = 0.02). By 12 months, positive intervention effects emerged within the common cardiac and sleep and rest symptom categories. Program group women reported more improvements in symptoms likely to be affected by increasing physical activity at both follow-ups (p < 0.05).
Janz
N K
NK
Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan, School of Public Health, Ann Arbor 48109-2029, USA.
Clark
N M
NM
Dodge
J A
JA
Schork
M A
MA
Mosca
L
L
Fingerlin
T E
TE
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D019468:Disease Management; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008824:Michigan; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011336:Probability; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012016:Reference Values; D012494:Sampling Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D016387:Women's Health