Theme #3: Achieving Health Goals
pain
SAID
Patients were asked to provide a health goal that they hoped to achieve over the
6-month time period between their initial and follow-up interviews. Many patients
made goals to lose weight, exercise, eat healthier, and to be in less pain. We were
able to complete follow-up interviews with 25 patients, 23 of whom had set discrete
health goals. Among these 23 patients, 57% achieved their health goal. Among the 14
participants who received CTs and completed follow-up interviews, 9 of them achieved
their stated health goal (64%). Among the 9 participants who did not receive CTs and
completed follow-up interviews, 4 achieved their health goal (44%).One patient achieved his goal of getting a prosthetic, which allowed him to be more
mobile. He described how he previously needed to rely on friends to get to physical
therapy but that after getting his prosthetic, he started using public
transportation and felt less dependent on others. Another patient made a goal to
lose weight and said that once she was able to start exercising more, she lost
almost 20 pounds. For this patient in particular, it was the ability to get a new
car—which occurred only after her old car was hit and she received money from her
insurance company—that she was able to start getting to her appointments. She called
the accident a “