JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Globally, cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death. Primary prevention relies heavily on health risk assessments and lifestyle changes, which can significantly reduce long-term risk and mortality. Digital health offers an accessible and cost-effective approach to support prevention, enabling data sharing and visualization of key indicators like blood pressure and glucose fluctuations. These visual insights help patients better understand the effects of lifestyle changes and enhance communication with healthcare providers.

Objective:

The aim of this research is to evaluate whether the use of CVD risk visualization Petal-X and the use of Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) are associated with lifestyle changes and the perception of person-centred care (PCC) among patients.

Methods:

The study initially enrolled 119 participants, of whom 101 completed the final examination in the randomized clinical trial were used for comparative analyses. The study enrolled adults aged ≥40 years with at least one cardiovascular risk factor but no previous diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. Participants were randomized to an intervention group, which received a presentation of CVD risk estimation using the prognostic model Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE2), visualized through the Petal-X interface, and CGM or to a control group receiving standard care. In addition, various anthropometric measurements, blood sampling, and calculations of biological age were conducted, using both glycan-based biomarkers and phenotypic biological age estimation.

Results:

The highest mean value of the SCORE2 calculation at baseline was in intervention group 3 and was 3.84 (SD=2.08), while the lowest score in the control group was 3.17 (SD=1.99). Regarding the assessment of a healthy lifestyle, participants in all groups initially rated the domain of daily routine the highest 19.24 (SD=5,87), which improved by the final evaluation, although there were no statistically significant differences (P =.42) in changes between the groups. The perception of person-centred care was rated highest across all groups in the domain of shared decision-making, with no statistically significant differences (P=.26) between the groups. Results indicated improvements in healthy lifestyle habits, but the impact of interventions on perceived changes remained insignificant.

Conclusions:

Scores for healthy lifestyle and the perception of PCC in the study sample improved, although there were no statistically significant differences between groups. This suggests that the interventions were effective in changing lifestyles, but adjustments would be needed to achieve a greater impact. Emphasis was placed on the use of visualization as a key tool to raise patients' awareness of their risk of CVD. The findings suggest that visualization has great potential to improve patient involvement in care planning. Longer interventions with a larger sample size could contribute to a more in-depth understanding of these effects in clinical practice and optimize the use of digital tools for lifestyle modification in patients at risk of CVD. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT06226948