Promoting wellness in individuals with coronary heart disease

The care of patients with coronary heart disease is focused toward assisting each individual to maximize his or her level of wellness by understanding and adhering to the prescribed medical regimen as a means for reducing or eliminating modifiable cardiovascular risk factors. Despite the role of risk modification in the management of coronary heart disease, lack of adherence to prescribed regimens is a fundamental problem. Behavioral models have examined factors that explain the likelihood of engaging in risk modification efforts and provide a rich theoretical basis for describing and predicting various aspects of behavioral change; however, difficulty in achieving sustained risk modification for individuals with diagnosed coronary heart disease makes it important to examine new directions for study. This article presents a model for wellness motivation related to the prevention of cardiovascular disease and outlines potential intervention strategies to enhance motivation in behavioral change.