While heart patients who participate in cardiac rehab programs typically do well during enrollment, they tend to revert to unhealthy lifestyles once the formal gym-based regimens end. A pilot scale study was devised to sustain patients' lifestyle improvements after supervised cardiac rehab. The program uses wearable fitness trackers and call-in sessions with a health coach.
The 12-week mobile health, or mHealth, program not only kept cardiac rehab
patients from losing ground, it appeared to help them maintain and even gain fitness. The researchers have published their findings in the American Heart Journal and are now looking to scale up the study with a larger group of patients.
Cardiac Rehab Patients can Benefit More from Open Gym Format
After hospitalization for cardiac events, problems in scheduling initial appointments had become a barrier to promptly starting rehabilitation.
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‘A 12-week mobile health program not only kept cardiac rehab patients from losing ground, but also helped them maintain and even gain fitness.’
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"The benefits of a cardiac rehab program are well-established, but the gains tend to be temporary," said senior author William Kraus, M.D., who led the project as part of the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute. "Good habits are hard to maintain for a lot of people once they are on their own and no longer have someone overseeing their progress."
Kraus and exercise physiologist Brian Duscha used modern devices to build a post-rehab regimen that could provide a measure of oversight and motivation outside of a gym-based regimen.
![Women Do Not Adhere to Cardiac Rehab Programs]( "Women Do Not Adhere to Cardiac Rehab Programs")
Cardiac rehabilitation programs offer patients structured exercise, education, counseling, and risk reduction strategies.
The researchers enrolled 25 heart disease patients after they completed a typical cardiac rehabilitation program, which included 36 medically guided exercise sessions in a gym setting, diet counseling and other programs that encourage healthy lifestyle choices.
Following rehab, 16 of the patients were randomly selected to participate in the mHealth intervention, consisting of a wearable activity tracker, a personalized prescription to walk a certain number of steps a day, and up to 12 weeks of personalized virtual sessions with a health coach over the phone or computer.
A comparison group of nine patients were discharged from cardiac rehab with usual care, which did not include any specific lifestyle recommendations other than advice to continue with good diet and exercise choices.
After 12 weeks, the researchers measured fitness levels and physical activity levels of participants in both groups. As expected, the usual care group's peak fitness fell by a statistically significant 8.5 percent. But the mHealth group not only sustained their fitness levels, but actually continued to increase peak fitness, although not at a statistically significant rate given the small size of the study.
While the minutes per week of physical activity of people in the usual care group tailed off across all levels of activity, those in the mHealth group shifted their activity level to a higher intensity from moderate-low to moderate-high intensity.
"While both groups were exercising above the government guidelines of 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity at the end of cardiac rehab, only the mHealth group members were meeting this guideline 12 weeks after cardiac rehab," Duscha said.
"The mHealth group only decreased their moderate level exercise by 16 minutes per week, while the usual care group fell off by 113 minutes per week," he said. "This has important public health implications, because maintenance of physical activity and physical fitness are inversely associated with cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke."
Source: Eurekalert
Women Do Not Adhere to Cardiac Rehab Programs
Cardiac rehabilitation programs offer patients structured exercise, education, counseling, and risk reduction strategies.
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The researchers enrolled 25 heart disease patients after they completed a typical cardiac rehabilitation program, which included 36 medically guided exercise sessions in a gym setting, diet counseling and other programs that encourage healthy lifestyle choices.
Following rehab, 16 of the patients were randomly selected to participate in the mHealth intervention, consisting of a wearable activity tracker, a personalized prescription to walk a certain number of steps a day, and up to 12 weeks of personalized virtual sessions with a health coach over the phone or computer.
A comparison group of nine patients were discharged from cardiac rehab with usual care, which did not include any specific lifestyle recommendations other than advice to continue with good diet and exercise choices.
After 12 weeks, the researchers measured fitness levels and physical activity levels of participants in both groups. As expected, the usual care group's peak fitness fell by a statistically significant 8.5 percent. But the mHealth group not only sustained their fitness levels, but actually continued to increase peak fitness, although not at a statistically significant rate given the small size of the study.
While the minutes per week of physical activity of people in the usual care group tailed off across all levels of activity, those in the mHealth group shifted their activity level to a higher intensity from moderate-low to moderate-high intensity.
"While both groups were exercising above the government guidelines of 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity at the end of cardiac rehab, only the mHealth group members were meeting this guideline 12 weeks after cardiac rehab," Duscha said.
"The mHealth group only decreased their moderate level exercise by 16 minutes per week, while the usual care group fell off by 113 minutes per week," he said. "This has important public health implications, because maintenance of physical activity and physical fitness are inversely associated with cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke."
Source: Eurekalert
Women-Only Cardiac Rehab Programs Help Reduce Anxiety And Depression
Cardiac rehab program comprised of structured exercise training and comprehensive education and counseling may reduce deaths by 25 percent.
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 Personalized Music During Exercise Sessions Increase Cardiac Rehab by 70%The tempo-pace synchronization helps cue the person to take their next step or stride and helps regulate, maintain and reinforce their prescribed exercise pace. | Advertisement
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