OT and Heart Disease

Heart disease is the most common serious chronic condition among adults.

In fact, per the latest report, a staggering 1 in 3 US adults received care for a cardiovascular risk factor or condition in 2020.

The same report projects that annual inflation-adjusted health care costs attributable to cardiovascular conditions will nearly quadruple from $393 billion in 2020 to $1,490 billion by 2050.

Truly astounding numbers.

Heart disease is an umbrella term that encompasses coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular disease, arrhythmias, congenital heart disease, cardiomyopathies, and other structural or functional heart disorders.

But, despite this complexity, there is clear guidance from the American Heart Association about what to do to improve and maintain heart health, they call them them Life’s Essential 8:

1. Consume a healthy diet emphasizing vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, lean proteins (including fish), and minimizing trans fats, red and processed meats, refined carbohydrates, and sweetened beverages.

2. Maintain a healthy body weight through caloric restriction and counseling for those with overweight or obesity.

3. Engage in regular physical activity, specifically at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes per week of vigorous-intensity exercise.

4. Avoid tobacco products and exposure to secondhand smoke.

5. Limit alcohol intake to moderate levels, if consumed at all.

6. Manage blood pressure through lifestyle changes and, if needed, medication.

7. Control blood cholesterol with diet, physical activity, and medication when indicated.

8. Prevent and manage diabetes with lifestyle modifications and appropriate pharmacologic therapy when necessary.

We know that behavioral counseling for these lifestyle changes can be effective. But, to date, occupational therapy has been underutilized in this critical public health initiative.

In this live webinar and podcast course, we’ll talk to one occupational therapist, Sabina Khan, who is using her OT skill-set to help tackle this large scale problem, through new technologies.

We’ll discuss why OT has been under-utilized to date, what opportunities exist for OTs to play a larger role, and what new technologies might help us step into this critical role, with our unique expertise.

Assessments and Interventions for Heart Disease

Possible lifestyle assessments:

1. Avoidance of risky substances

• National Institute on Drug Abuse Quick Screen

2. Stress management

• Perceived Stress Scale

3. Physical activity

• Physical Activity Vital Sign

4. Restorative sleep

• The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)

5. Whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern

• Starting The Conversation Assessment

6. Positive social connections

• Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ6)

Adult screens for social determinant of health

• Accountable Health Communities Health-Related Social Needs (AHC-HRSN)

• American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Social Needs Screening Tool

• Access Health Spartanburg: Social Determinants Screening Tool

• Boston Medical Center-Thrive Screening Tool

• Total Health Assessment Questionnaire for Medicare Members

• The PRAPARE Screening Tool

• Your Current Life Situation Survey

Interventions discussed

• Handouts coming soon...

1. You will recognize common occupation-based assessments OTs can use related to heart health.

2. You will be able to identify evidence based intervention for heart health that are within our scope of practice.

• Intro

• Discussion

  1. How did you become interested in women’s health, then in heart health?

  2. Can you tell me about your current work?

  3. What have you learned about the massive global health problem that is heart disease- and how might OTs encounter this in their work?

  4. Before we talk OT specifically, what are other professions doing, especially in terms of prevention?

  5. What do you see as OT’s potential role in assessment?

  6. What do you see as OT’s potential role in intervention?

  7. What could patient education look like in our sessions?

  8. How are new technologies going to enable a new level of new future of care for cardiac conditions?

• Live Q&A

• Closing

• Lifestyle changes to prevent cardio- and cerebrovascular disease at midlife: A systematic review

• Behavioral Counseling to Promote a Healthy Diet and Physical Activity for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Adults With Cardiovascular Risk Factors: Updated Evidence Report and Systematic Review for the US Preventive Services Task Force

• Occupational Performance Coaching on Health Self-Care Behavior and Activity Participation for Adults With Heart Failure: A Randomized Controlled Trial

• Cognitive Function in Cardiac Patients: Exploring the Occupational Therapy Role in Lifestyle Medicine

It is the policy of OT Potential to disclose any financial and non-financial interest the provider or instructor may have in a product or service mentioned during an activity. This is to ensure that the audience is made aware of any bias of the speaker.

OT Potential pays guest speakers an honorarium for their participation, either directly or to an institution of the speaker's choosing at their request. We invite guests whose expertise often comes from practices, programs, or building products in their field. Where a speaker has a financial interest in the subject of a course, we disclose it below so you can weigh it for yourself.

OT Potential's interest in this topic: We have no financial stake in this topic.

Speaker interests: Sabina Khan is an assistant professor and health technology innovator whose projects in development include a digital health platform for symptom and wellness pattern identification and a machine-learning clinical decision support tool intended to assist physicians in diagnosing cardiac conditions. She is also the author of two academic textbooks with a third forthcoming.