Exercise Is Medicine Greenville®: Blood Pressure And Body Weight Outcomes From The First Two Years

Abstract

Many non-communicable chronic diseases (NCD) such as cardiovascular disease are largely mediated by lifestyle behaviors which include physical activity (PA). Exercise is Medicine Greenville® (EIMG®) is a clinic-to-community, experiential lifestyle behavior change model that partners physicians with qualified community exercise professionals for optimal patient care. Patients not currently meeting national PA guidelines and/or have or are at-risk for NCDs are physician-referred to the EIMG® program. Of particular interest for this pilot study were patients with elevated body weight and/or blood pressure (BP > 130/80) upon referral. PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of the EIMG® program on body weight and systolic and diastolic BP (SBP and DBP, respectively) in referred patients. METHODS: Patients not meeting PA guidelines or at-risk for or with a controlled NCD were referred to the 12-week EIMG® exercise training program. Each patient followed a supervised, personalized exercise training program developed and facilitated by an EIMG® certified professional. A single group pre-test, post-test experimental design was utilized when collecting body weight and BP measurements before and after the exercise training program. A paired sample t-test was utilized to determine statistically significant changes (p<0.05) in each variable due to the exercise intervention. RESULTS: To date, a total of 150 patients have graduated from the 12-week intervention with complete pre-and post-intervention measurements. Fifty-nine percent (n=89) of the patients were hypertensive upon referral. Analysis of the whole group resulted in a significant decrease in body weight (2.6 kg, p<0.000) with no significant decrease in SBP or DBP. The 89 hypertensive patients lost 1.4 kg (p=0.001) and significantly decreased SBP by 8 mmHg (p<0.000) and DBP by 3 mmHg (p=0.003). CONCLUSIONS: EIMG® may be beneficial in assisting patients with or at-risk for NCD by improving body weight and decreasing BP. Greater cardiovascular benefit may be recognized in those referred to the program with hypertension by decreasing both SBP and DBP. Since previous research indicates that exercise does not account for body weight loss, further research is needed to better understand the results of body weight loss observed during the EIMG® program.