PURPOSE: To determine the effects of individually tailored interventions designed to increase physical activity (PA) in cardiac patients. METHODS: A total of 99 (77 men and 22 women, 61.5 +/- 10.7 yr) patients entering a phase III cardiac rehabilitation program completed a 12-wk PA intervention. Patients were randomized to usual care (UC, time-based recommendation), pedometer feedback (PF), newsletter-based motivational messaging (MM), or PF+MM. Both PF groups were given a goal of increasing steps/d by 10% of individual baseline value each week. If the goal for the week was not reached, the same goal was used for the next week. Physical activity was assessed for 7 d before beginning and after completing the program. The change in steps/d, moderate to vigorous intensity PA minutes, and sedentary time were compared among intervention groups. RESULTS: Average change in steps/d was found to be significantly greater (p < 0.01) in the PF (2,957 +/- 3,185) and the PF+MM (3,150 +/- 3,007) compared with UC (264 +/- 2,065) and MM (718 +/- 2,415) groups. No group experienced changes in moderate to vigorous intensity PA time and only the PF intervention group decreased sedentary time (baseline 470.2 +/- 77.1 to postintervention 447.8 +/- 74.9 min/d, p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: The findings from this study demonstrate that using PF was superior to the usual time-based PA recommendations and to newsletter-based MM in patients starting a phase III CR program. Cardiac rehabilitation programs are encouraged to implement PA feedback with individualized PA goals in order to support the increase in PA.
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