title: Social support group attendance is related to blood pressure, health behaviours, and quality of life in the Multicenter Lifestyle Demonstration Project.
abstract: Changes in coronary risk factors, health behaviours, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) were examined by tertiles of social support group attendance in 440 patients (21% females) with coronary artery disease. All patients participated in the Multicenter Lifestyle Demonstration Project (MLDP; eight hospital sites in the USA), an insurance-covered multi-component cardiac prevention program including dietary changes, stress management, exercise and group support for 1 year. Significant improvements in coronary risk factors, health behaviours, and HRQOL were noted at 1 year. Several of these improvements (i.e. systolic blood pressure, health behaviours, HRQOL) were related to social support group attendance, favoring those who attended more sessions. The associations between support group attendance to systolic blood pressure and to four HRQOL subscales (bodily pain, social functioning, mental health, and the mental health summary score) remained significant when controlling for changes in health behaviours, but dropped to a non-significant level for the HRQOL subscales 'physical functioning', 'general health' and 'role-emotional'. These results suggest an independent relationship of social support group attendance to systolic blood pressure while improvements in quality of life may be in part due to improved health behaviours facilitated by increased social support group attendance.
authors.affiliation: Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Sausalito, USA.
authors.forename: Ute
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schulz
authors.forename: Claudia Ruth
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Pischke
authors.forename: Gerdi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Weidner
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Daubenmier
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Elliot-Eller
authors.forename: Larry
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Scherwitz
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bullinger
authors.forename: Dean
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ornish
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D001794:Blood Pressure; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000523:psychology*; D011379:Prognosis; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D055502:Secondary Prevention; D012657:Self-Help Groups; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires