Effects of the WeChat mini program-based positive psychology intervention on psychological and health behavior motivation outcomes in patients with coronary heart disease (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Psychological problems are highly prevalent among patients with coronary heart disease and cause poor health behavior. WeChat mini program-based positive psychology intervention may improve psychological problems and health behavior. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to preliminarily assess the feasibility and acceptability of the WeChat mini program-based positive psychology intervention and its efficacy on psychological and health behavior motivation outcomes in patients with coronary heart disease compared with a control group. METHODS Participants with coronary heart disease in the experimental group completed weekly positive psychology exercises delivered through the WeChat mini program for 6 weeks, while those in the control group received routine health education. Feasibility and acceptability were firstly evaluated of this study in a pilot study that recruited some participants in the experimental group. The Chinese version of Index of Well-being scale and Positive and Negative Affect Scale were used to assess the effect of the intervention on psychological outcomes and the Treatment Self-Regulation Questionnaire were used to assess the effect of the intervention on health behavior motivation outcomes. RESULTS Twenty-eight participants completed all the exercises during the intervention period. Compared to the control condition, the WeChat mini program-based positive psychology intervention improved the subjective well-being (t=-2.755, P=0.008), positive affect (t=-2.489, P=0.013), no-smoking motivation (t=-2.051, P=0.045), regular exercise motivation (Z=-2.410, P=0.016), and healthy diet motivation (Z=-2.007, P=0.045) of the patients with coronary heart disease and reduced their negative affect (t=2.338, P=0.023). CONCLUSIONS These preliminary findings showed that the WeChat mini program-based positive psychology intervention was feasible, acceptable, and associated with improvements in subjective well-being, affect, and health behavior motivation. Larger randomized controlled trials are needed to examine this intervention’s impact on health behavior adherence and other important outcomes. CLINICALTRIAL This study is registering with ClinicalTrials.gov.