Experiences of older vulnerable people with ischemic heart disease and their peer mentors: a qualitative process evaluation

Type of funding sources: Foundation. Main funding source(s): VELUX FONDEN

Peer-mentoring is a low-cost intervention with the potential of improving self-efficacy and cardiac rehabilitation attendance among older vulnerable patients with cardiovascular disease. The present study is part of an ongoing research program, developing and testing the feasibility of a 24-week peer-mentor intervention.

The objective was to understand the content and context of the realized peer-mentor intervention, and to explore how mentors and mentees experienced the intervention.

The study was designed as a qualitative process evaluation. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted in a purposeful sample of mentees (n=13), and peer-mentors (n=12), and thematic analysis was used to analyse, categorize, and interpret interview data.

Five themes captured the content and context of the peer-mentor intervention as experienced by peer-mentors and mentees. ‘Takes one to know one’, stressing the importance of the mentor-mentee matching process; ‘Varying demand for mentors’, illustrating the difficulties in predicting who has the greatest need for mentoring; ‘Varying degree of familiarity’, describing the mentor-mentee relationship as a continuum from formal mentor to informal friend; ‘Putting the patient first’, illustrating how mentors support mentees based on their personal experiences of successful recovery while letting the mentee set the pace and goals; and ‘Varying view of success’, showing how intervention success is perceived differently by mentors and mentees.

The study provides new knowledge on how and under what circumstances a mentor intervention works. These findings are important to the implementation of future peer-mentor interventions to achieve successful peer-mentor support and improve cardiac rehabilitation attendance among older vulnerable patients with ischemic heart disease.