MySlainte: Testing the Effect of Involving Partners in a CVD Prevention Community Lifestyle Program

The prevalence of chronic diseases in Ireland is increasing and places significant burden both on the individual and family unit, but also on an already overstretched healthcare system. Many chronic diseases are preventable and frequently share common risk factor and unhealthy lifestyle profiles; which offers a unique opportunity to intervene, address and modify these common disease drivers, and potentially prevent disease complications.

The MyAction program and previous similar programs have successfully been run by Croí/NIPC (based in Galway, www.nipc.ie) in an effort to combat common cardiovascular risk factors. These programs have demonstrated that addressing and modifying risk factors is both effective and sustainable. Expanding programs like these to a broader group of chronic disease patients with overlapping modifiable risks could lead to multi-factorial benefits: prevention is better than cure. While cardiac and pulmonary rehab are well established programs, patients with other chronic diseases do not currently have access to such focused interventions in Galway. Chronic kidney disease and rheumatoid arthritis are two such chronic diseases that have a particularly high cardiovascular risk burden, and so may benefit from a focused intervention program.

Chronic kidney disease is a worldwide public health problem with an estimated prevalence of 11.8% in Ireland. With chronic kidney disease comes a myriad of other co-morbidities and increased rate of all-cause mortality. Significantly, cardiovascular disease is the primary contributor to increased morbidity and mortality in this patient cohort. In fact, in patients with Stage 3 CKD, the incidence of cardiovascular mortality is higher than the incidence of kidney failure. This makes prevention of drivers of cardiovascular disease a key component in managing these patients.

Lifestyle and exercise programs may have an even broader range of benefit in this patient group. Through inflammation, uremic toxins, and dysregulation of key proteins and hormones a second major consequence of CKD is sarcopenia and skeletal muscle dysfunction. This is compounded by the fact that physical activity in all stages of CKD are low, which leads to decreased quality of life, increased falls risk and associated morbidity. Previous programs have demonstrated the benefits of exercise in this group. The MySláinte program aims to build on this by tackling a broader range of modifiable risk factors.

Similarly, patients with rheumatoid arthritis have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease due to a complex interplay between systemic inflammation and a higher prevalence of traditional CVD risk factors. Despite recommendations by European League against Rheumatism (EULAR) of the importance of emphasising positive lifestyle choices, a recently published article by Malm concluded that discussions regarding lifestyle improvements (including exercise, smoking, drinking and diet) are suboptimal in these patients. Exercise programs have also been shown to be of benefit in these patient groups in decreasing falls rates, as well as improving health related quality of life measures.

It has previously been described that a concordance of behavioural risk factors exists between patients with coronary artery disease and their spouses. Similarly, spouses of patients with hypertension have increased odds of hypertension themselves. The same is seen in patients with type 2 diabetes, with spouses of patients with type 2 diabetes having a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. In keeping with that, it has been demonstrated that including both patients and their partners in lifestyle intervention programs improves not only the patients risk factor profile, but also that of the partners. It has also been suggested that couples who complete programs together may in fact do better than those who enter as individuals. Interestingly, even when lifestyle interventions are aimed only at a patient, spouses have shown to benefit indirectly from such programs in a knock on effect termed the "ripple effect". These concepts highlight the importance of considering a patient's support network when undergoing a lifestyle intervention. They also highlight a potentially unique opportunity to improve the lifestyles, and hence risk factor profiles, of entire households. Previously, the MyAction program had invited participants to bring their partners to the program. Unfortunately, due to funding issues, this part of the program was gradually phased out. However, the impact of removing partners form the program was never evaluated. The investigators of this study aim to evaluate this.

Therefore, for the MYSLAINTE study, the investigators aim to include patients with stable rheumatoid arthritis and stable 3 or 4 CKD with 2 or more defined uncontrolled cardiovascular risk factors. In order to enter the study, each patient must also have a partner who is willing to take part. Each partner/patient pair will be randomised in a 1:1 ratio into one of two groups: with partner or without partner.

• With partner: the patient and their partner will undergo an initial assessment (week 1), a 10 week intervention program (weeks 2-11) and then an end of program assessment (week 12)
• Without partner: Both the patient and their partner will undergo an initial assessment (week 1) and end of program assessment (week 12) However, only the patient will undergo the 10 week intervention program. The patients partner will receive usual care from their GP.

The intervention phase is part of the MySláinte program and involves, a weekly 1 hour group supervised exercise session, a weekly 1 hour group health promotion workshop, weekly individualised goal setting, weekly individualised exercise prescription and optimisation of cardioprotective medications. This is all run over a 10 week period and delivered in a community setting by a multidisciplinary team including: a physiotherapist, a dietitian, a nurse specialist and physician.

The primary aim of the study is to assess if the 10 week intervention can improve modifiable cardiovascular risk factors in these patients and their partners. A secondary aim of the study is to assess the impact of simultaneously including a partner in this lifestyle intervention program.