Motivational counseling in the prevention of the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases

Abstract

Despite significant progress in the development of novel methods for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, their prevalence remains high, which is largely due to low adherence of patients to drug and non-drug preventive interventions. Motivational counseling (MC) is a unique technology that makes it possible to activate the patient’s desire to change their behavior towards a healthy one. The review presents an analysis of the literature on MC technology and the possibilities of its application in cardiology practice. Research data show the effectiveness of MC in improving the nutrition profile, physical activity, weight loss, smoking cessation, control of glycated hemoglobin in patients with diabetes, improving outcomes in patients with heart failure, increasing adherence to therapy, etc. Conducting MC using telemedicine technologies seems promising. The training of specialists is of paramount importance, since the effectiveness of this type of counseling largely depends on the accuracy of the consultant’s adherence to the essence and technologies of MC.

Keywords

• motivational counseling
• motivational interviewing
• cardiology
• cardiovascular disease
• prevention