In the current study, HC measures include primary care visits, pharmacy costs (including number and cost of scripts), number of hospital admissions, and overall HC costs tracked for 5 years after the initial study. The control group was matched on previous 9 month prior HC expenditure, age, gender, and health relative risk score to the intervention groups, and did not undergo one of the two active lifestyle interventions from the previous study.

Methods: The current study compares changes in HC utilization among participants in the mindfulness intervention (n = 84), the diet/exercise intervention (n = 86) and a retrospectively matched control group (n = 258). In the initial study health improvements (lower CRP scores) occurred in both interventions. The study reported here extends an initial study of two active lifestyle interventions- mindfulness and diet/exercise- with enrollees in the university's health plan. Lifestyle interventions offer the hope of sustained health behavior change. Purpose: Escalating health care (HC) expenditures highlight the need to identify low cost interventions that hold promise for lowering health care costs- especially for chronic illness including cardiovascular disease.

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