FRIDAY, July 23 (HealthDay News) -- A nurse-managed secondary prevention program may improve cardiovascular risk factors among individuals who have suffered a myocardial infarction, according to a study published in the August issue of Applied Nursing Research.

Zöhre Irmak, Ph.D., of Mugla University, and Hatice Fesci, Ph.D., of Gazi University in Ankara -- both in Turkey, evaluated the effects of a nurse-managed secondary prevention program on lifestyle and risk factors among 36 individuals who had experienced a myocardial infarction. The secondary prevention program was initiated in the hospital and continued during home visits four times after discharge.

The researchers found that patients in the program had reductions in mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and body mass index, with the proportion of smokers decreasing from 61.1 percent before the program to 13.9 percent after the program. In addition, the researchers found that 5.6 percent of patients paid attention to their nutritional intake prior to the program versus 80.6 after the program, and 13.9 percent engaged in physical activity before the program versus 86.1 percent after the program.

"Meaningful changes occurred in lifestyle and risk factors after this program," the authors write. "However, 14 weeks is a very short time to evaluate behavior change as it takes a long time to integrate a new behavior into a person's daily life. Much longer follow-up periods may be required to evaluate the effectiveness of the program."

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