BEHAVIORAL AND PSYCHOSOCIAL EFFECTS OF INTENSIVE LIFE-STYLE MANAGEMENT FOR WOMEN WITH CORONARY HEART-DISEASE

Females, especially older women, historically have been excluded from coronary heart disease (CHD) studies. The PrimeTime program was a rand omized clinical trial designed to study the effects of a comprehensive lifestyle management program (very low-fat vegetarian diet, smoking c essation, stress-management training, moderate exercise, and group sup port) on changes in behavioral risk factors among postmenopausal women with CHD. The study also explored program effects on four psychosocia l clusters: coping with stress, distress, social support, and self-eff icacy. The program produced significant behavioral improvements in 4- and 12-month adherence to diet, physical activity, and stress-manageme nt in the PrimeTime women compared to the Usual Care (UC) group. In ad dition, the PrimeTime participants demonstrated improvements relative to UC on psychosocial measures of self-efficacy, perceived social supp ort, and ability to cope with stress. Strengths and weaknesses of the study, and implications for future research are discussed. (C) 1998 El sevier Science Ireland Ltd.