Abstract
Patients with cardiovascular diseases face difficulty to adhere to non-pharmaceutical treatment recommendations and consequently face an increased recurrence rate, re-hospitalizations and poor quality of life. Our review of the literature over the past decade aims to be a useful tool to the enlightening of health care providers and health educators about the interventions that enhance treatment adherence to lifestyle modification. PubMed, PsycLIT, Cochrane Library, Scopus, CINAhl, PSYinfo, Web of Science, and Central databases were searched to identify articles published within the decade 2011-2021 and 42 studies met the criteria for inclusion. Our study revealed many different approaches to inconsistency in life style prescriptions focusing mainly on psychological and social factors. Interventions like increasing of knowledge, joining cardiac rehabilitation programs, development of a therapeutic alliance, behavioral techniques that reinforce self-efficacy and motivation, use of technology as reminder and creating a support network are not only effective but also low-cost programs that will play a decisive role in treatment effectiveness. Improving treatment adherence to lifestyle recommendations requires a multidimensial approach by an interdisciplinary team of health professionals. Investing in interventions that improve attitudes, beliefs, readiness and self-care, can prove to be very rewarding for patients, health and economics. The present literature review will assist health professionals and educators create experiential educational and behavioral programs that promote the adoption of healthy behavior and help maintain adherence over time. Future research is required for identifying the most effective interventions based on different lifestyles practices and cultural factors.
Highlights
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally (World Health Organization, 2020) and as life expectancy increases and people live more years with cardiac disease, it is reasonable to anticipate an increased demand of patients for better quality of life
Numerous studies were conducted looking into the effectiveness of interventions aimed to increase adherence of cardiovascular patients to lifestyle modifications
Their results underscore the value of establishing a treatment bond between the physician and the patient
Summary
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally (World Health Organization, 2020) and as life expectancy increases and people live more years with cardiac disease, it is reasonable to anticipate an increased demand of patients for better quality of life. Lifestyle may play a significant role in the increased prevalence of cardiac disease seen in developed countries. Smoking, physical inactivity, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, unhealthy diet, risky alcohol consumption, poor sleep and emotional stress are the main lifestyle risk factors for CVDs (Benjamin et al, 2019). Common therapeutic recommendations include pharmacotherapy and lifestyle risk factor modifications (Ιestra et al, 2005). Patients with cardiovascular diseases often experience difficulties in following these lifestyle recommendations and this compromises treatment effectiveness with enormous consequences on health and economics (Cutler et al, 2018). Adherence to long-term therapies for chronic illnesses such us
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