Evaluating a Multidisciplinary e-Health Program to Promote Regular Physical Activity Among Individuals at Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Disease.

While the control of cardiovascular risk factors is essential in the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), significant treatment gaps exist. For instance, a recent study of Canadian adults filling prescriptions for hypertension or dyslipidemia demonstrated that the majority remained overweight and sedentary despite being at increased risk of developing CVD.

In Canada, there is currently a shortage of primary care physicians. Furthermore, many physicians have little training in helping their patients make healthy lifestyle changes such as losing weight or exercising regularly. Non-medical health professionals such as nurses, dieticians, psychologists, and kinesiologists are well trained in helping individuals modify their behaviour. However, they often do not have access to the health records of their patients or the clinical tools to translate healthy behaviours, such as increasing physical activity, into meaningful health outcomes, such as a reduction in blood lipids, blood glucose, blood pressure, or the future risk of CVD. A web-based e health program could offer a potential solution to fill the gap and support non-medical health professionals to become more effective at cardiovascular prevention.

The MyHealthCheckUp online wellness program has been designed by a multidisciplinary team to improve the health of individuals at minimal cost using a web-based approach. The program's scientifically validated disease models have been proven to be effective in clinical interventions to improve the health of individuals with active health issues, such as high cholesterol, hypertension, and obesity, as well as low-risk individuals who want to reduce their risk of future problems [2, 3]. The website also features educational modules and physical activity, weight loss, stress management, and sleep hygiene challenges.

The educational modules cover topics such as blood pressure management, smoking cessation, stress management, and weight loss. The physical activity challenge is designed to optimize health and wellness by promoting walking and other physical activity. As individuals or teams, participants track their physical activity online, and compete against each other or an avatar using a virtual route. The weight loss challenge is designed to promote healthy weight management through food and physical activity tracking as well as online information regarding lifestyle modification. The stress and sleep challenges are designed to help manage stress and improve sleep duration and quality.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of a web-based e-health intervention, used by non-medical health professionals, to improve the management of cardiovascular risk factors including hypertension, dyslipidemia, cigarette smoking, excess body weight, sedentary lifestyle, as well as sleep and stress problems.