An autonomy-supporting cardiovascular prevention programme: Practical recommendations from Self-Determination Theory

Abstract

Health promotion is an important challenge for the health sector in the 21st century. Chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) can be avoided by, amongst other things, making prudent lifestyle changes. However, stimulating long-term behaviour change remains an important challenge for health promotion practitioners. Self- Determination Theory (SDT) has been applied in various health care settings to facilitate long-term behaviour change with some evidence of positive outcomes. From the perspective of SDT the effectiveness of prevention programmes should not only be defined as the proportion of participants that comply with recommendations, but should also give information on the level of autonomous motivation of the compliers. SDT would suggest that to stimulate the development of autonomous motivation and long-term behaviour change, autonomy-supporting interventions should be developed. Health care professionals can enhance patient behaviour change outcomes through support of patients’ psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. However, the health promotion field, involving health practitioners with various professional backgrounds, requires a more practical and specific summary of recommendations to improve the quality of intervention design. The aim of this manuscript is to describe in detail how practical recommendations from SDT were applied to a cardiovascular prevention programme in Belgium.