Anyone who has tried to attack a number of bad habits at one time
knows the difficulty of changing those nasty eating or behavioral
issues. Most people decide to attack one problem at a time. For
example, the doctor may have told us to knock off the salt in order to
lower our blood pressure. And, we're not getting enough exercise, so a
new daily regimen would be in order. But doing this all at the same
time... ugh!
However, new research has proven that most people are actually more
successful with behavioral habit changes when they do them all at
once. Physicians writing in the June 11th edition of "Archives of
Internal Medicine" report that doctors trying to help patients change
more than one behavioral risk factor may have more success approaching
several topics at once rather than addressing them separately over
time.
"David J. Hyman, M.D., M.P.H., of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston,
and colleagues randomly assigned 289 African-American patients who had
hypertension and were smokers to one of three groups that encouraged
them to stop smoking, reduce their sodium intake to less than 100
milliequivalents per liter per day, and increase physicalactivity by
at least 10,000 pedometer steps per week.
The first group received one in-clinic counseling session on all three
behaviors every six months, plus motivational telephone calls for 18
months; the second group followed a similar protocol, but addressed a
different behavior every six months; and the third group received
usual care, consisting of a one-time referral to existing group
classes. After six, 12 and 18 months, urine and blood samples were
obtained, blood pressure was taken and behavioral changes were
assessed.
A total of 230 participants completed the full study. "At 18 months,
only 6.5 percent in the simultaneous arm, 5.2 percent in the
sequential arm and 6.5 percent in the usual-care arm met the primary
end point," or changing two of the three behaviors, the authors write.
"However, results for single behavioral goals consistently favored the
simultaneous group."
For example, after six months, 29.6 percent in the simultaneous, 16.5
percent in the sequential and 13.4 percent in the usual-care groups
had reached the urine sodium goal. After 18 months, 20.3 percent in
the simultaneous, 16.9 percent in the sequential and 10.1 percent in
the usual-care groups tested negative for urine cotinine, which the
body produces when it metabolizes nicotine, indicating they had
stopped smoking."
Long-term multiple behavior change is difficult for anyone, as these
authors conclude. But, this study provides strong evidence that a
simultaneous approach is a much more effective route to changing
numbers of bad habits. The results seem to "stick" and that is what
matters!
This article quoted in full from "Sham vs. Wham: The Health insider"
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