Heart failure Exercise And Resistance Training CAMP

DESCRIPTION (provided by the applicant): Alternative models for initiating and maintaining regular exercise behavior in heart failure (HF) patients are essential given the debilitating symptoms of exercise intolerance, fatigue and dyspnea and the physical deconditioning experienced by the approximately 5.0 million Americans with HF (American Heart Association, 2004). Few HF patients engage in regular exercise as recommended by the American Heart Association (Pina et al., 2003) and initiation of exercise is difficult without reimbursement for formal rehabilitation programs. Therefore, the goal of this study is to test the feasibility of an innovative exercise training camp intervention called HEART CAMP (Heart failure Exercise And Resistance Training CAMP). HEART CAMP is derived from social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1997) and purposes to teach HF patients how to exercise and self-manage exercise behavior over time. Specific aims are: (1) To pilot test the impact of the HEART CAMP intervention versus attention control in HF patients over time (3 weeks, 3 and 6 months) on: primary outcomes of estimated energy expenditure, self-efficacy to exercise, and adherence to exercise; and secondary outcomes of symptoms, biomarker, physical and psychological functioning and quality of life; (2) To estimate effect sizes for group differences in outcomes to determine sample size for a larger investigation; (3) To evaluate the feasibility of the HEART CAMP study for a larger investigation including: methods and strategies used in the intervention; data collection methods; and reliability estimates of outcome measures. An experimental repeated measures design with randomization of subjects to either the HEART CAMP intervention group or the attention control group will be used with outcome measures at baseline, 3 weeks, 3 and 6 months. Exercise training studies have HF, however attrition rates from exercise training studies and maintenance of long-term exercise behavior remains problematic. The HEART CAMP intervention is a much-needed approach to address these issues in chronically ill HF patients.