Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 30, 2026
Fundus Photography as a Convenient Tool to Study Microvascular Responses to Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Epidemiological Studies
Published on: October 22, 2014
Effect of a 30-Month Health-Promoting Program on the Prevalence of Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Patients With First
Hans J Søgaard1, Mikkel Højlund2, Anja Elliott3
1Department of Psychiatry, Regional Psychiatry West, Herning, Denmark.
Background:
Lifestyle interventions aimed at reducing cardiovascular risk factors in patients with first-episode schizophrenia (FES) have shown modest efficacy, probably owing to a short observation period and the presumption of linear trajectories of cardiovascular risk factors.
Study Question:
How prevalent are abnormal cardiovascular values in patients with FES and how do cardiovascular risk factors develop during a 30-month program?
Study Design:
A 30-month naturalistic longitudinal study of 136 consecutively referred patients with FES from 2 outpatient clinics. The health-promoting program consisted of individual guidance, group sessions, and normal treatment and care.
Measures And Outcomes:
The prevalence of abnormal cardiovascular risk factors (body mass index, waist circumference (WC), body fat percentage, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse, total cholesterol, high- and low-density lipoproteins, triglycerides, mean glucose, and visceral adiposity index) was estimated at index. The cardiovascular risk factor trajectories were analyzed with longitudinal mixed-effect models.
Results:
The patient with FES showed elevated cardiovascular risk factors at index. Thus, 56.8% of the patients were overweight in different grades and 50.4% had increased WC. A total of 81.8% had high level of body fat and hypertension prevalence with only 20% with normal blood pressure. Important changes during the intervention period were that the risk factors weight and WC were increasing the first 581 and 646 days, after which they decreased. Almost all cardiovascular risk factors worsened initially, improving after 1-2 years.
Conclusions:
Patients with FES show increases in cardiovascular risk factors at index. Short observation periods and the presumption of linear trajectories may indicate that the effect of health-promoting programs is ineffective, as the effects are curvilinear and improvements appear only after 1 year. The implication clinically is the importance of a long intervention period regarding lifestyle modifications to ascertain improvement among patients with FES.
More Related Videos
07:31Implementation of a Real-Time Psychosis Risk Detection and Alerting System Based on Electronic Health Records using CogStack
Published on: May 15, 2020
13:08Measurement of Fronto-limbic Activity Using an Emotional Oddball Task in Children with Familial High Risk for Schizophrenia
Published on: December 2, 2015
Related Concept Videos
01:26Factors Affecting the Risk of Infection
The integrity and count of the white blood cells help the body resist pathogens and fight infection. When impaired, it reduces the body's resistance to pathogens. The acidic pH levels of the gastrointestinal, genitourinary tracts, and skin...
01:18Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention II
The agent-host-environment model states that disease results...
01:20Lifestyle Factors and Health
Benefits of Physical Activity
Physical activity, whether through structured exercise or casual activities like walking, biking, or dancing, is a cornerstone of a...
01:26Levels of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention
In primary prevention, actions taken before disease onset prevent the disease from...
01:25Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention I
The health belief model (HBM) attempts to predict health-related behavior in specific belief patterns. According to the HBM, a person's...
01:08Prevalence and Incidence
Prevalence indicates the proportion of individuals in a population who have a specific disease or health...