The Feasibility of an Intervention Targeting Sources of Meaning in Cardiac Rehabilitation

Plain-language summary

Being diagnosed with heart disease can be a life-changing experience, often sparking existential questions and concerns about meaning in life. A lack of meaning in life has been found associated with increased emotional distress and decreased quality of life. Health professionals recognize that issues related to personal meaning in life are relevant but rarely address these aspects systematically in cardiac rehabilitation. This may be due to a lack of necessary tools. The project evaluates a novel, brief and structured intervention that aims to strengthen the experience of meaningfulness and reduce or prevent emotional distress by addressing personal sources of meaning in life among patients attending cardiac rehabilitation and their relatives in Denmark. The intervention is based on the Sources of Meaning Card Method, a method developed by Peter la Cour and Tatjana Schnell to map and explore personal sources of meaning (www.somecam.org). For the current project, the method has been adapted for a cardiac rehabilitation context. Three intervention formats are examined in a feasibility study in a municipal rehabilitation setting: 1) an individual format for patients in cardiac rehabilitation, 2) a dyadic format including a patient together with a relative, and 3) a group format for patients. Approximately 60 patients and 20 relatives are expected to participate. The study explores (a) participants' experience with and acceptability of the intervention formats; (b) changes in meaningfulness and emotional distress in a pre-post design; (c) recruitment and adherence rate, and (d) acceptability and practicality of the three formats among rehabilitation professionals.

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