A recent study showed that using the ‘heart age’ concept to express heart health promotes behavioral changes that significantly reduce cardiovascular disease risk and improve heart health.
Researchers at the University of Balearic Islands in Spain studied 3,153 people who were randomly placed into 1 of 3 groups before they went through an annual health assessment. One group had their cardiovascular risk expressed in a percentage, another as their calculated heart age and the other only received information on healthy living. One year later, their wellness measurements were recorded during another health exam.
Traditionally, risk scores for cardiovascular disease are presented with a percentage of how likely one is to develop the condition with in the next 10 years. The heart age calculation uses the same risk factor data, but presents the risk score as heart age to make it more personally relevant.
Although it’s common knowledge that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, medical care providers have always had difficulty in conveying to patients the severity of their risks to the extent that they will change their lifestyle.
Previous research has shown that people better understand their condition once they understood their scores according to heart age. This new research shows that people have actually applied this knowledge to change their behaviors to decrease their cardiovascular risk.
From the study, patients who were told of their cardiovascular risk either as a percentage or heart age experienced significant decreases in their risk, compared to the control group that had only received healthy living information.
Even more noteworthy, the patients told of their heart age were more likely to change their lifestyle. For example, they were four times more likely to quit smoking than those who had received the percentage score. There were no other differences to what was presented except that the information was in the form of their heart age.
These findings suggest that just by presenting information in a clear and relevant manner, such as with heart age, was enough to instill positive motivation to change and lead a healthier life.
To be 1 of the 6 million people who have taken the quick heart age test and learned how to improve their heart health, visit the Heart Age website.
Source
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140205103542.htm
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