Page 167 - Pro-active Management of Women’s Health after Cardiometabolic Complicated Pregnancies

3.5 Feasibility and effectiveness of a lifestyle intervention| 165
A strong motivator to participate in the lifestyle intervention was the experienced morbidity in the pregnancy (85%). Other motivators were the perceived increased risk of future disease (60%), risk of recurrence in a next pregnancy (58%) and the possibility to improve personal health (60%). A majority of the responders reported that feedback on their risk profile made them aware of their risk of future disease (80%) and empowered them to improve their lifestyle (84%).
Satisfaction with the lifestyle intervention was high (86%). A majority of the responders was satisfied with the counselling sessions (89%) and use of the computer-tailored health education program (61%). Perceived barriers to participate in the lifestyle intervention were travel distance (33%) and travel time (35%) to the hospital, although 76% thought the hospital to be a good setting for the counselling sessions. A total of 65% agreed that counselling sessions conducted by telephone were a good alternative for face-to-face counselling.
Preferred time between counselling sessions was eight weeks (range 4-16) and preferred average duration of the intervention program was 12 months (range 2-72). Preferred time to start with lifestyle intervention was at three months postpartum (range 0-26).
Effectiveness
Based on the differences in demographic and baseline measurements in table 3.5.1, we introduced prevalence of preeclampsia and severe preeclampsia, as well as gestational age at delivery into the adjustment model for the effect analysis.
Table 3.5.2 shows the changes in the intervention group after lifestyle intervention. Weight was significantly decreased by 4 kg in the intervention