” (Project Manager D). ICT systems were sometimes visible in projects, in cases where they were used to improve communication with patients (e.g., through websites or providing patients with access to medical records) and to enable patients to track their behavior, health values, and progress. In summary, although practices used different strategies, our interviews with project managers confirmed that the projects used the DMPs to “offer more.” They changed the nature of conversations with patients in individual and group settings, and improved patient

tracking through ICT systems. They also ventured beyond the medical practice into the community to address health behavior changes more comprehensively. Overall, selleck chemicals llc both the quantitative and qualitative Cilengitide in vivo results showed that DMP implementation improved patients’ health behavior. These findings are in line with those of Hung and colleagues [33], who found that interventions

such as DMPs based on the CCM offer a useful framework for preventive purposes by addressing important risky health behaviors. The percentages of patient participants meeting the Dutch standard for healthy physical activity (63.7% in 2010, 68.5% in 2011) were higher than the average percentages in the general adult (18+ years) Dutch population (58.1% in 2010, 58.0% in 2011), and reflect a substantial improvement not seen in the general population [34]. The proportion of current smokers (25.0% in 2010 vs. 17.8% in 2011; 7.2% reduction) among chronically much ill patients also decreased substantially. The mean prevalence of smoking in the general Dutch population was 25.6% in 2010 and 2011 [35]. There is evidence from large long-term randomized controlled trials that quality of life of chronically ill patients slowly deteriorates over time, especially in the placebo

groups but sometimes also in the intervention groups [36] and [37]. Although physical quality of life also deteriorated among patients in our study, we expect that improvements in health behavior (physical activity and smoking) will prevent or slow down the deterioration of physical quality of life normally seen in a chronic illness population. Qualitative research indicated many of the aspects of DMPs targeted at improving health behavior are expected to have a longer-term impact on quality of life. In a meta-analysis of interventions based on the CCM to improve care for chronic illnesses Tsai and colleagues [23] found that the evidence on quality of life outcomes was mixed. Condition-specific quality of life scales are known to be more sensitive to changes in clinical status compared to generic measures of quality of life such as the SF-36. However, we have chosen the latter, because the generic quality of life measures can be used in a wide variety of diseases, as was the case in our project.