Grant: Project Grant

One-in-four Canadians will be diagnosed with an abnormal heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation (AF) in their lifetime. People with AF have an increased chance of having serious medical problems like stroke and heart failure. Nearly three-quarters of people with AF also have obesity (excess body weight). According to research, people with obesity that lose approximately 10% of their body weight can experience relief from uncomfortable AF symptoms. Losing weight may even help people return to a normal heart rhythm. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a proven way to help people with heart disease live longer, healthier lives. So far, research has not shown whether CR helps improve the abnormal heart rhythms seen in AF. This may be because CR programs usually do not offer specific help with weight management. Therefore, adding behavioural weight-loss treatment (BWLT; group classes to change thoughts and behaviours to encourage weight-loss) to CR programs may help people with AF and obesity experience relief from their symptoms. This study will test whether people who receive BWLT during CR can lose weight and improve their AF symptoms. People who have AF and obesity will take either traditional CR, or CR with added BWLT. Traditional CR consists of participating in exercise sessions, supervised by health professionals, twice per week for 12 weeks. In addition to exercising, people in the BWLT group will complete 12 online group therapy classes to learn strategies from psychology to help them lose weight. After one year, we will compare the two groups to see if people who had BWLT lost more weight and had greater improvement in AF symptoms compared to the traditional CR group. We believe this research will help efforts to provide effective treatment to patients with AF to help them lose weight and reduce or eliminate AF symptoms.