The Need of Psychological Motivational Support for Improving Lifestyle Change in Cardiac Rehabilitation

Despite a decreasing trend in incidence and mortality, Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) still represent important causes of death and disability in developed countries, significantly affecting individuals’ quality of life and healthcare costs . Unhealthy lifestyle behaviors, such as poor diet, lack of physical activity and smoking status, constitute a challenge in contrasting the disease. Alternatively to the medical model, which rely on the traditional approach of information and advicegiving, evidence to date indicate the need of psychological actions able to address patients’ beliefs and concerns about their health status as well as to enhance confidence in their abilities to overcome barriers to adherence and achieve life‐style modifications in the long term. Even if the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee stated that Cognitive‐Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an important component of Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) programs, it does not specifically focus on eliciting patients’ motivation, leading to the development of interventions aimed at enhancing health behavior change and among which Motivational Interviewing (MI) has obtained varying degrees of success. Also, the new mHealth (mobile health) approach could represent an important strategy in order to move motivational psychological support where necessary (outpatient settings), maximizing the results obtained from the CR in a long term among people suffering from CVD and other chronic conditions.