Yes, all participants must currently be in cardiac rehab or must have completed their last session within the last 6 weeks to enroll.
Yes, you may still be eligible! Our research focuses on anyone who is statistically less represented in cardiovascular research. This means if you are a cisgender man from a low-income household, rural area, racial/ethnic minority, or otherwise struggle to access or afford your medical care, you qualify for our study.
You only need to fall into one of the categories on the eligibility list to most likely qualify.
Cardiac rehab patients may enroll once they know they will not complete a formal maintenance program and up to 6 weeks after their final cardiac rehab session.
In order to participate in this study, you must:
Participants may drop out of the research at any time for any reason. We kindly request that you notify investigators in writing, such as via email or postal mail. Some individuals may feel that they need to stop participating in treatment activities, but they can still complete the brief, periodic assessments. If you are amenable to still completing the assessments, please let us know
No. This program is completely free of charge and funded by the National Institutes of Health.
All participants are asked to complete assessments as part of their participation so that we can see if the treatments are working. If you complete the assessments, you will be paid $25 for completing the 3-month assessment, $75 for the 6-month assessment, and $20 for the 12-month phone assessment. All assessments are done from the comfort of your location over the internet or telephone.
After agreeing to a virtual orientation session, new participants will complete 3 steps: stepping on a study-provided scale, surveys, and wearing a study-provided Fitbit. You will repeat these steps after 2 months, and then after 3 more months.
First, you will be assigned at random to a text messaging or online asynchronous program. Both choices help you do the following:
These each need less than an hour per week of your time.
After 2 months, we will decide if the treatment seems to be working for you based on your goals.
If it meets your goals, you will continue the same treatment for 3 more months.
If it does not meet your goals, you will receive online cardiac rehab treatment created by the study leaders and offered through Chanl Health.
You will receive the online program for 3 months. Based on random chance, you may also get a case manager for that time. You will then complete a third assessment.
One year after you enroll, you will be asked to answer a very brief phone survey about your health and quality of life after you finish the treatments.
There is always a risk that participating in a research study will cost you your time without helping you. However, the treatments in this study are all based on the best available evidence and decades of previous research, which have shown improvements for people who participate. You could get injured exercising in this program, but you would have the same risk of getting hurt during exercise without this program. Finally, you will be asked to complete surveys on your computer or device using HIPAA-compliant technology (the same standard for health privacy as what your healthcare provider abides by). There is always a risk of a data breach, but this risk is small and we safeguard against this. This study poses minimal risks.
While we hope that participating in this study will improve your short- and long-term health and quality of life, this can never be guaranteed. We created the study to help you with your physical activity, weight management, and medication adherence, and in turn, your overall heart health and wellbeing. We hope that you will find benefits in these and other areas, but we cannot say for certain that you will benefit.
While there are many entities assisting this project, in most cases only the research team members with whom you directly interact will see your name linked to your data.
To protect your privacy, the research team will identify you by a unique identification number to discuss your data with other entities that work with us on this research.
Entities that have access to your anonymous data may include:
A note about Chanl Health
During the study, you will access our program through a website owned by Chanl Health. Chanl Health is a third party vendor. As part of their agreement with us, Chanl Health will not share your data with anyone else. Only members of the study team can access Chanl Health. You can see members of our study team here.
Chanl Health has a Business Associate Agreement with us, which means they have passed a thorough security and privacy assessment.
Exceptions
Rhode Island law requires all of these health care workers and researchers to protect your personal information. The law might make us release certain information in specific cases. For instance, the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) requires we report child abuse or neglect. The Office of Healthy Aging (OHA) requires we report abuse or neglect or people ages 60 or older.
If you have any other questions about your information that we could not answer here, please call or email us.
The study team will use your information to give you support for:
After your study period has ended, the results will be analyzed to find out how best to support other people like you in future healthcare and research.
When the researchers analyze the study results and write them up in a scientific publication, information that could link you to the data will be removed.
If you have any other questions about your information that we could not answer here, please call or email us.
The NIH has given us a Certificate of Confidentiality. This means any information you give us that could identify you is protected by law. The information you give us is not shared with outside entities, like private corporations or government departments that are not part of this study.
When your data is shared with relevant research parties or written to describe the study, personal and identifying details are removed. Researchers may not disclose information that may identify you, even under a court order or subpoena, unless you give permission.
This confidentiality is protected by law.