title: Gender Analysis in the Outcomes of a Lifestyle Intervention Among Patients Who Had an Open Heart Surgery.
abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the gender-oriented differences in the outcomes of a lifestyle intervention trial (diet, smoking cessation, and exercise) among patients who had open heart surgery. A randomized, nonblind intervention study was performed on 500 patients who had open heart surgery. Immediately after hospital discharge, 250 patients were randomly allocated lifestyle intervention by receiving oral and written information in the form of a booklet with specific educational information for postoperative rehabilitation. The remaining 250 patients received the regular oral instructions. The applied lifestyle intervention proved to be beneficial only in men as far as quitting smoking (relative risk [RR]: 0.36, confidence interval [CI]: 0.16-0.80; P = .01) and returning to work (RR: 0.35, CI: 0.13-0.92; P = .03) are concerned. For both genders, no significant associations between dietary and physical activity recommendations were observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Lifestyle nursing intervention immediately after open heart surgery had a beneficial effect on men 1 year after the surgery but not on women. Thus, there is a need for gender-specific studies among women.
authors.affiliation: Department of Critical Care, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kadda
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Mediterraneo Hospital, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Athanasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Manginas
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stavridis
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Dimitris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Balanos
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kotiou
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Health Science and Education, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece d.b.panagiotakos@usa.net.
authors.forename: Demosthenes B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Panagiotakos
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011184:Postoperative Period; D011379:Prognosis; D012737:Sex Factors; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods*
keywords: cardiovascular disease; diet; exercise; gender; lifestyle intervention; smoking.