Single-Sex Cardiac Rehab Helps Depressed Women

Story here. Excerpt:

'A motivational women-only cardiac rehabilitation program helped reduce symptoms of depression in women with coronary heart disease, a U.S. study has found.

Depression, which is more common in female heart disease patients than in males, can interfere with adoption of lifestyle changes meant to improve health and willingness to attend cardiac rehabilitation.

"Women often don't have the motivation to attend cardiac rehab, particularly if they're depressed," lead author Theresa Beckie, a professor at the University of South Florida's College of Nursing in Tampa, said in a news release from the American Heart Association.

"Historically, women have not been socialized to exercise, and their attendance in cardiac rehabilitation programs has been consistently poor over the last several decades. This poor attendance may be partly due to mismatches in stages of readiness for behavior change with the health professional approaching from an action-oriented perspective and the women merely contemplating change -- this is destined to evoke resistance," Beckie explained in the news release.'