Weight loss is easy when partners join in the effort

Spouses shed more pounds together than alone.

Lifestyle improvement after a heart attack is a crucial part of preventing repeat events. A new study presented in ESC Congress 2020, has shown that patients have a better chance of becoming healthier when their spouses join the effort to change habits- especially when it comes to weight loss.

In other words, losing weight becomes easy in heart attack survivors when partners join to diet.

The RESPONSE-2 trail recently found that heart attack survivors alluded to weight loss programs, physical activity, and smoking cessation were bound to modify behaviors contrasted with those getting usual care. In both groups, living with a partner was connected with greater achievement in shifting bad habits. The most outstanding upgrades were in patients who partook in lifestyle programs and lived with a partner.

This follow-up study investigated whether partner involvement in lifestyle programs had an impact on behavior change. A total of 824 patients were randomly assigned to the intervention group or the control group.

This analysis concentrated on the 411 patients in the intervention group. They were alluded to up to three lifestyle programs for weight reduction, physical activity, and smoking cessation relying upon their necessities and preferences. Partners could attend for free, and nurses encouraged them to partake. Partner participation was characterized as going to any event once. 

About half (48%) of partners partook in the lifestyle intercessions. Contrasted with those without a partner, patients with a participating partner were more than twice as likely (chances proportion 2.45) to improve in any event one of the three areas (weight loss, work out, smoking cessation) within a year.

When partners’ influence was analyzed in the three areas separately, patients with a participating partner were most successful in reducing weight compared to patients without a partner.

Ms. Lotte Verweij, a registered nurse and Ph.D. student, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands said, “Patients with partners who joined the weight loss program lost more weight compared to patients with a partner who did not join the program. Couples often have comparable lifestyles, and changing habits is difficult when only one person makes an effort. Practical issues come into play, such as grocery shopping and psychological challenges, where a supportive partner may help maintain motivation.”

“The study did not find more improvement in smoking cessation or physical activity when partners actively participated. These lifestyle issues might be more subject to individual motivation and persistence, but this hypothesis needs more investigation.”

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