MedPath

Healthy Heart Habits-2

Not Applicable
Recruiting
Conditions
Acute Coronary Syndrome
Interventions
Behavioral: Behavioral Activation for Health and Depression (BA-HD)
Other: Enhanced Usual Care
Registration Number
NCT06440278
Lead Sponsor
The Miriam Hospital
Brief Summary

Sixty adults who have experienced acute coronary syndrome within the past 2-12 months from three states (Rhode Island, North Carolina, Minnesota) will be randomized to either (1) a coaching program for depressed mood and health behavior change (Behavioral Activation for Health and Depression; BA-HD), or (2) Enhanced Usual Care. This study will evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of study procedures and BA-HD, and establish protocol and measurement harmonization across three sites in preparation for a future multi-site efficacy trial.

Detailed Description

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) represents a significant public health burden, with the most recent estimates suggesting that over 1 million U.S. adults experience ACS per year. As individuals are acutely surviving ACS more often, the associated disease burden is increasing for both the healthcare system and the individual living post-ACS.

Poor engagement in health behaviors post-ACS contributes to risk for recurrent ACS and mortality. Modifiable behavioral contributors include smoking, medication non-adherence, physical inactivity, and poor diet. Approximately 20% of post-ACS adults experience depression and depression is associated with worse engagement in critical health behaviors, which in turn, increases subsequent progression of cardiovascular disease. Treatment of depression alone improves, but does not eliminate, behavioral nonadherence. Behavioral Activation is a robust counseling treatment for depression with evidence of improvements in depressive symptoms across varied populations (including those with medication conditions). BA seeks to improve mood by increasing environmental reinforcement through collaborative, values-guided setting of "activation goals." The goal setting focus and structure of BA allows for seamless integration of health behavior targets and thus offers a potential framework to integrate depression and health behavior treatment. BA-HD may be a useful strategy to depression and multiple health behavior improvement post-ACS. However, this possibility requires further testing.

The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a multisite pilot randomized controlled trial and test the initial potential effects of the intervention (BA-HD) on cardiovascular health and depressive symptoms relative to an Enhanced Usual Care control condition. Participants will be randomly assigned to either 12 weeks of tele-delivered BA-HD) or Enhanced Usual Care (i.e., one session of depression and heart disease education and provision of community mental health resources).

Primary endpoints are feasibility of multisite recruitment procedures (e.g., recruitment rates at each site), feasibility of intervention and control procedures (e.g., percent of enrolled participants who complete the study), study retention (e.g., percent of participants who complete 3 month follow-up), and acceptability of intervention content and intervention delivery and control procedures. The investigators hypothesize that the intervention content and delivery will be 1) feasible and 2) acceptable. The investigators will also examine changes in cardiovascular health, depressive symptoms, medication adherence, affect, and quality of life.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
RECRUITING
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
60
Inclusion Criteria
  • Medical chart-documented ACS (diagnosis of unstable angina, ST or non-ST elevation myocardial infarction) occurrence within the past 2-12 months.

  • Post-ACS depressed mood defined as a Patient Health Questionnaire(PHQ)--9 score ≥ 10 upon screening,

  • Non-adherence to and willingness to implement changes to ≥1 health behavior based on screening of:

    1. Smoking/Tobacco exposure,
    2. Physical Activity,
    3. Diet,
    4. Sleep health,
    5. Medication adherence
  • English-language fluency

  • Resides within 90 minutes (driving time) of each site with no plans to relocate beyond that range during study participation

  • Access to a telephone and/or videoconferencing capability

  • Has primary care provider

  • Address at which packages can be received

Exclusion Criteria
  • Chart indication of significant cognitive impairment (e.g., chart-documented dementia), Current exacerbation of serious mental illness,
  • Suicidality,
  • Hearing impairment that prevents telephone/video communication for intervention and assessment purposes,
  • Current hospice care, and
  • Current engagement in cardiac rehabilitation or other regular counseling treatment targeting depression or health behavior change

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Behavioral Activation for Health and DepressionBehavioral Activation for Health and Depression (BA-HD)-
Enhanced Usual CareEnhanced Usual Care-
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Study retentionWeek 26

Proportion of randomized participants who complete the 6 month assessment.

Treatment AcceptabilityWeek 13

Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8; Scores range from 8-32 with higher scores indicating greater treatment satisfaction.

Treatment engagementWeek 13

Dose of treatment received (i.e., session attendance)

Recruitment feasibilityBaseline

Number of participants randomized per month of recruitment

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
7-day point prevalence abstinence from smokingWeek 13, Week 26

Self-report of no smoking, not even a puff, for 7 days; then Bio-chemically confirmed by carbon monoxide in a breath sample

Depressive symptomsWeek 13, Week 26

Patient Health Questionnaire-9; Scores range from 0 to 27; higher scores indicate greater depressive symptoms.

Non-HDL cholesterolWeek 13, Week 26

mg/dL; measured via point of care testing

Medication adherence (blood pressure regimen)Week 13, Week 26

DOSE-Nonadherence Extent of Nonadherence items will be used to assess self-reported medication adherence to blood pressure medication; scores range from 1-5

Self-Reported DietWeek 13, Week 26

Mediterranean Eating Pattern for Americans Questionnaire; Scores range from 0-16 with higher scores indicating greater consistency with mediterranean style diet

Cardiovascular HealthWeek 13, Week 26

Life's Essential 8 (LE8) Score; The LE8 classifies cardiovascular (CV) health across eight CV risk metrics: diet, physical activity, nicotine exposure, sleep health, weight, blood pressure, total cholesterol, and hemoglobin A1C. Each individual LE8 component is assigned a value ranging from 0 to 100. A total score is created by averaging each component score. Higher total scores reflect better overall CV health.

7 Day Moderate to Vigorous Physical ActivityWeek 13, Week 26

Minutes spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity from 7 day Actigraph wear

Sleep durationWeek 13, Week 26

Average hours of sleep per night over 7 nights assessed via 7 day Actigraph wear

Body Mass IndexWeek 13, Week 26

Body weight (kilograms)/ Height (meters squared)

Blood pressureWeek 13, Week 26

Systolic and diastolic blood pressures (mmHg)

Medication adherence (cholesterol regimen)Week 13, Week 26

DOSE-Nonadherence Extent of Nonadherence items will be used to assess self-reported medication adherence to cholesterol medication; scores range from 1-5.

Medication adherence (blood glucose regimen)Week 13, Week 26

DOSE-Nonadherence Extent of Nonadherence items will be used to assess self-reported medication adherence to both oral and injectable medication (assessed separately) to manage blood glucose; scores range from 1-5

All-cause mortalityWeek 26

Electronic medical record review

Self-Reported Moderate to Vigorous Physical ActivityWeek 13, Week 26

Minutes spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity over 7 days based on report from a 7 Day Physical Activity Recall interview

Self-reported sleep durationWeek 13, Week 26

Self-reported hours of sleep per night from the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index

Hemoglobin A1CWeek 13, Week 26

%; measured via point of care testing

Major Adverse Cardiac EventsWeek 26

Composite of hospitalization for unstable angina, urgent coronary revascularization, and non-fatal myocardial infarction determined via participant inquiry and confirmed through electronic medical record review

Health Behavior Engagement CompositeWeek 13, Week 26

A health behavior engagement composite score will be created that follows the LE8 scoring structure. LE8 component scores will be summed for physical activity, diet, combustible tobacco exposure, and sleep. Medication adherence will also be assigned a score ranging from 0 to 100 based on scaled DOSE-Nonadherence scores.

Trial Locations

Locations (3)

Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute

🇺🇸

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

ECU Health

🇺🇸

Greenville, North Carolina, United States

The Miriam Hospital

🇺🇸

Providence, Rhode Island, United States

© Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved by MedPath