A Heart Health Promotion Program
StrongPeople Strong Hearts is a comprehensive healthy living program that aims to reduce morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease in mid-life and older individuals through nutrition and physical activity.
The program is based on extensive research and combines elements from other StrongPeople programs including StrongPeople Strong Bodies and StrongPeople Living Well. The multi-level curriculum combines dietary skill-building, aerobic activity, and strength training. The program focusses on experiential learning, aiming to improve health knowledge and understanding of environmental influences and to increase adoption of healthy behaviors and social support. It is designed for mid-life and older individuals with low physical activity levels.
Classes meet for one hour twice a week for 12 weeks. Nutrition education and physical activity are typically a part of each class; topics focus on individual-level behavior change as well as social and environmental change. The physical activity components become progressively more rigorous throughout the program and the educational content progresses from introductory topics to maintenance strategies. The beginning of the program is focused on behavior change, then turns to examining the difficulties and accomplishments of behavior change, and finally addresses sustaining behavior change.
