Projektleder Nina Rottmann
Sources of Meaning in life with heart disease. Development and evaluation of an intervention for cardiac rehabilitation.
Sources of Meaning in life with heart disease. Development and evaluation of an intervention for cardiac rehabilitation.
Being diagnosed with heart disease can be a life-changing experience, often sparking existential questions and concerns about meaning in life. A lack of meaning in life is associated with increased emotional distress and decreased quality of life. Health professionals recognize that issues related to personal meaning in life are relevant but rarely address these aspects systematically in cardiac rehabilitation. This may be due to a lack of necessary tools.
The project develops and evaluates a novel, brief, structured intervention that aims to strengthen the experience of meaningfulness and reduce or prevent emotional distress by addressing personal sources of meaning in life among patients attending cardiac rehabilitation and their relatives in Denmark. The intervention is based on the Sources of Meaning Card Method, a method to map and explore personal sources of meaning (www.somecam.org).
Through a user-centered design involving patients, relatives, and rehabilitation staff, we develop the intervention in three different formats: an individual format for patients in cardiac rehabilitation, a dyadic format including a patient together with a relative, and a group format for patients. The three formats are hereafter examined in a feasibility study in a municipal rehabilitation setting. Approximately 60 patients and 20 relatives will participate. We explore (a) participants’ experience with and acceptability of the intervention formats; (b) changes in meaningfulness and emotional distress in a pre-post design; (c) recruitment and adherence rate, and (d) acceptability and practicality of the three formats among rehabilitation professionals.
The project is funded by The Danish Heart Foundation.