Motivating healthy dietary habits

Using an app to deliver communication to the participant.

Using in person meetings and/or phone communication with the participant.

Physical activity to be measured using the Exercise Behavior Questionnaire from the Stanford Patient Education Research Center. Scores are for type of activity, length of activity, time spent in aerobic activities, and an assessment of time spent in stretching and strengthening exercises. For the manuscript, we only focused on aerobic activity and we did not include stretching or strengthening exercise scores.

Participants were asked how often during the past week they performed aerobic exercises on a scale of 0 (none) to 4 (more than 3 hours per week). Scores were converted by the overall time spent in aerobic exercises per week and range from 0 to 180 with higher scores indicating more time spent doing aerobic exercises.

Dietary habits tracked using the Fat-Related Diet Habits Questionnaire. Questions were rated on a 4-point scale, where 1 indicates healthy and 4 less healthy eating habits. The questionnaire included five sections (i) replacing high fat foods with low fat substitutes (score range: 7-28); (ii) modifying high fat foods (range: 3-12); (iii) avoiding high fat cooking methods (score range: 4-16); (iv) consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables as a snack (score range: 3-12); and (v) choosing specially manufactured low fat food (score range: 5-20). The total score is calculated from the sum of section scores divided by 5 (range from 4.4 to 17 with higher scores representing more unhealthy eating habits)

Total of all reporting groups

Change in weight, collected at two time points.

QoL as measured by the Vascular Quality of Life Questionnaire. There are 25 questions that are each scored 1-7. The total score is determined by all adding the score from each of the 25 questions and dividing by 25. The total range is 1-7 and a higher score indicates a better quality of life.

Physical activity to be measured using the Exercise Behavior Questionnaire from the Stanford Patient Education Research Center. Scores are for type of activity, length of activity, time spent in aerobic activities, and an assessment of time spent in stretching and strengthening exercises. For the manuscript, we only focused on aerobic activity and we did not include stretching or strengthening exercise scores.

Participants were asked how often during the past week they performed aerobic exercises on a scale of 0 (none) to 4 (more than 3 hours per week). Scores were converted by the overall time spent in aerobic exercises per week and range from 0 to 180 with higher scores indicating more time spent doing aerobic exercises.

Dietary habits tracked using the Fat-Related Diet Habits Questionnaire. Questions were rated on a 4-point scale, where 1 indicates healthy and 4 less healthy eating habits. The questionnaire included five sections (i) replacing high fat foods with low fat substitutes (score range: 7-28); (ii) modifying high fat foods (range: 3-12); (iii) avoiding high fat cooking methods (score range: 4-16); (iv) consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables as a snack (score range: 3-12); and (v) choosing specially manufactured low fat food (score range: 5-20). The total score is calculated from the sum of section scores divided by 5 (range from 4.4 to 17 with higher scores representing more unhealthy eating habits)

Participants in this group will receive counseling (motivational interviewing) an initial face-to-face session followed by four phone sessions.

Motivational interviewing was used to promote physical activity and healthy dietary habits.