[Proposals for comprehensive approach to patient education for the care of type 2 diabetic patients].

The diagnosis of type 2 diabetes is generally put within the context of a medical check-up at a person more or less predisposed to the disease. From the patient's point of view the reality of the disease is thus at this moment at least abstracted, and can go from banalisation to dramatization. This aspect is going to influence how the patient is going to get involved in the approach of care and thus in the therapeutic educational process.

Independent evolution of heart autonomic function and insulin sensitivity during weight loss.

In order to investigate the improvement of insulin resistance and cardiac autonomic function along massive weight loss, 12 obese women were evaluated before, and 3 and 12 months after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. The 12-month values were compared to those of BMI-matched controls. Insulin sensitivity was assessed by euglycemic clamp and the cardiac autonomic function by the analysis of the Heart Rate Variability (HRV).

[Fighting heart attacks and atherosclerosis: a therapeutical challenge].

Myocardial infarction is a frequent, serious and recurrent complication of a chronic disease: atherosclerosis. Therapeutic advances have improved the clinical outcome of affected patients and have shortened the hospital length of stay. However, to decrease the recurrence of cardiovascular events, it is essential to increase adherence to therapeutic projects by improving information given to coronary patients during the short initial hospitalization.

[Representations, behavior and obesity].

Dealing with a long term chronic disease necessarily implies changes of behaviour. In the field of obesity, these behaviours concern habits which are very often firmly fixed in patients' lives. The study of patients' representations is of great interest in the medical field.

Enhancing regular physical activity and relapse prevention through a 1-day therapeutic patient education workshop: A pilot study.

Objective: Physical activity (PA) is important for managing chronic diseases, such as diabetes and obesity. Yet over half of patients who adopt PA programs do not maintain them at 6 months. To encourage regular PA among our patients, we developed a 1-day outpatient motivational workshop based on well-known theoretical frameworks.