Grant: Catalyst Grant: eHealth Innovations

Informing people of their risk of developping a heart disease in the future is a first step towards a prevention strategy. This risk should be supplemented with counseling on health-related behaviours. In this regard, most Canadian physicians perform risk assessment and they are well aware of the importance of promoting regular physical activity. Yet, 85% of adults do not meet Canada's physical activity guidelines. In the light of these new insights, physical activity counseling should be given an even higher priority among patients. However, factors such time constraints may hinder physicians from providing detailled counseling regarding physical activity. eHealth technology is an innovative way for helping patients to self-manage their heart disease risk factors. This technology follows the same principles of face-to-face counseling by asking individuals about their health behaviour status, their motivation and factors determining motivation and behaviour. The feedback given to a person is thus based on the answers given and highly tailored towards the specific characteristics and needs of this person. The aim of this study is to test the feasibility and efficacy of a web-based intervention targeting physical activity in patients not reaching Canada's physical activity guidelines.