A Tailored Exposure Intervention for Exercise Anxiety and Avoidance in Cardiac Rehabilitation

What this Trial Is About

This research aims to evaluate a behavioral intervention called Behavioral Exposure for Interoceptive Tolerance (BE-FIT) designed to reduce exercise anxiety and improve exercise adherence in patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation who are 40 years of age or older. The trial is a Stage II randomized-controlled study involving 146 patients with elevated exercise anxiety, aiming to understand if BE-FIT can help patients overcome anxiety to increase their physical activity during rehabilitation. Participants will be randomly assigned to either the BE-FIT intervention group or a Health Education Control (HEC) group. The BE-FIT program includes six one-on-one sessions over three weeks, focusing on exposure to feared bodily sensations, avoiding safety behaviors around exercise, and using a wrist-worn Fitbit to track and set physical activity goals. The HEC group receives matched contact time with educational sessions on healthy aging topics and also uses the Fitbit but without physical activity goals. Participants will attend six 45-minute individual sessions during the initial weeks of outpatient cardiac rehabilitation, scheduled before or after regular rehabilitation sessions. Assessments will be conducted at baseline, end of treatment, and at three follow-ups over 24 weeks. Researchers will collect data on exercise minutes, attendance at rehabilitation, and steps per day, monitoring progress and safety throughout the approximately six-month duration of the study.

Behavioral Exposure for Introceptive Tolerance RCT