title: Mediators of exercise maintenance after cardiac rehabilitation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Exercise maintenance after completing phase II cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is challenging for many patients. A telephone-based maintenance intervention improved exercise participation compared with a control group at 12 months post-CR discharge. We examined the 6-month mediators of intervention effects on exercise.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a randomized controlled trial, 130 patients who had completed CR (mean age: 63.6 [SD = 9.7] years, 20.8% female) were randomized to Maintenance Counseling (n = 64) or Contact Control (n = 66). Putative mediators examined the following: self-efficacy, behavioral processes of change, decisional balance index, social support for exercise, and enjoyment of exercise.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Multiple mediation analyses showed that the intervention significantly increased social support from friends at 6 months but not the other constructs. Decreasing support from friends mediated greater exercise participation in Maintenance Counseling than in Contact Control at 12 months.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Social support from friends functioned as a suppressor mediator for exercise maintenance among cardiac patients.
authors.affiliation: Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, The Miriam Hospital and W. Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.
authors.forename: Bernardine M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Pinto
authors.forename: Shira I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Dunsiger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D017079:Exercise Tolerance / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000523:psychology*; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012944:Social Support; D013689:Telephone / Q000706:statistics & numerical data