title: An investigation of the benefits of stress management within a cardiac rehabilitation population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Research describing whether stress management can improve clinical outcomes for patients in cardiac rehabilitation (CR) has yielded equivocal findings.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present investigation retrospectively examined the incremental impact of exercise and stress management (n = 188), relative to exercise only (n = 1389), on psychosocial and physical health outcomes following a 12-week CR program.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participation in stress management and exercise was associated with greater reductions in waist circumference and systolic blood pressure, relative to exercise alone, for patients with baseline clinical elevations on these measures. The stress management group had more depressive symptoms (as measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; t[1] = 3.81, P < .001) and lower physical quality of life (as measured by the 12-Item Short Form Health Survey Physical Component; t[1] = 3.00, P = .003) than the exercise-only group at baseline, but there were no differences between the groups at 12 weeks in terms of depressive symptoms (t[1] = 1.74, P = .082) or physical quality of life (t[1] = 1.56, P = .120).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings suggest that stress management may offer additional benefits in selected patients over and above exercise in CR.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Canada. t.s.campbell@ucalgary.ca
authors.forename: Tavis S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stevenson
authors.forename: Ross
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Arena
authors.forename: Trina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hauer
authors.forename: Simon L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Bacon
authors.forename: Codie R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Rouleau
authors.forename: Colleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cannon
authors.forename: James A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Stone
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000072038:Cardiac Rehabilitation; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000523:psychology; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000379:methods; D017079:Exercise Tolerance; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000517:prevention & control*