Solmaz Aminpour, Maryam Shahamfar and Jafar Shahamfar
This study was conducted to study and assess lifestyle behavior in selected cases of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) patients in Iran. Hundred patients were randomly selected among patients with first attack of Myocardial Infarction, who admitted to the CCU ward of Madani Heart Hospital from January to September, 2011. Fifty were assigned to a teaching group and the other fifty to a control group. An individualized teaching program was delivered to the teaching group during the hospitalization period. It covered aspects such as: the characteristics of heart disease, the anatomy and risk factors of atherosclerosis, diet and exercises therapy. When these patients were discharged to their homes, they received educational package for 6 months. The lifestyle and risk factors of patients such as smoking, blood pressure, pulse, blood lipid profile, Body Mass Index (BMI) and Waist Hip Ratio (WHR) were measured before and after the teaching program. Initially there was no significant difference in the number of nonsmokers. After post testing the results revealed that the number of non-smokers had significantly increased in teaching group from 66% to 90.1% (CI95% 0.55-0.81 vs. 0.82-0.98). Patients who exercised were significantly increased after teaching program from 30% to 88% (CI95%0.55-0.81 vs. 0.82-0.98) while no significant changes were shown by the control group. The results showed that WHR of the case group before education was in abnormal range (1.01) in comparison with the control group (0.99); while after education the mean WHR reduced in the case group (0.98), this difference in WHR was found to be statistically significant. The above findings suggest that the individualized teaching program might be helpful at reducing the risk factors of atherosclerosis in patients with CHD.
