A multibehavioral intervention to decrease cardiovascular disease risk factors in older men

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two mutibehavioral interventions: stress management (SM) (nutrition, exercise, and stress management) and education (ED) (nutrition, exercise, and education) on reduction of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in older men. A convenience sample (n = 33) of older men (66 +/- 5 years) with at least one CVD risk factor participated in this 6-month intervention. Mean receiving the SM intervention (n = 25) exercised at the facility twice weekly (at > or = 70% maximum heart rate for 40 minutes) and received 12 hours each of nutrition and stress management class instruction. Men receiving the ED intervention (n = 8) received the same exercise and nutrition protocols but received 12 hours of education without stress management. There were no significant differences in body habitus, metabolic response, exercise endurance, blood pressure, or heart rate between groups at baseline. The SM group had significant pre-post differences in weight, body mass index, intraabdominal fat, subcutaneous fat, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, VO2, supine systolic and diastolic blood pressures. The ED group demonstrated significant pre-post differences only in supine diastolic blood pressure. There were significant change score differences between the groups in triglycerides, subcutaneous fat, VO2, and body mass index. Results suggest that a 6-month multibehavioral intervention with stress management is effective in decreasing CVD risk factors in older men.