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 Among those who do go to cardiac rehab, most don't complete enough
sessions to get the maximum benefit, the study also found.
"Every cardiac rehabilitation session that a patient doesn't use is
a missed opportunity for them to improve their health," said lead
study author Matthew Ritchey of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention in Atlanta.
A full course of cardiac rehabilitation consists of 36 one-hour
sessions that include team-based, supervised exercise training,
education and skills development for heart-healthy living, including
counseling on diet and how to manage stress, Ritchey said by email.
Participants can also benefit from having a community of people
around them who are working toward similar recovery goals and
struggling with similar issues, he said.
"Participation in a cardiac rehabilitation program has been shown to
reduce the risk of death from any cause and from heart
disease-related causes, as well as decrease hospital readmissions
and improve functional status, quality of life, and mood," Ritchey
added.
For the study, researchers examined data on 366,103 people who had
heart attacks and other cardiac events that should be followed by
rehab for optimal outcomes. All had coverage through Medicare to
help pay for cardiac rehab.
Overall, just 89,327 people, or about 24%, went to any cardiac rehab
at all.
Among those who did go to rehab, participants completed about 25
sessions, on average. Only 27% had at least the 36 sessions
recommended for optimal benefits, researchers report in Circulation:
Cardiovascular Quality Outcomes.
Women were 9% less likely to go to cardiac rehab than men, the study
found.
Compared with white patients, black patients were 30% less likely to
get cardiac rehab, while Hispanic patients were 37% less likely and
Asian patients were 20% less likely.
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The sickest patients also appeared least likely to get rehab.
Compared to people with no more than two chronic health problems,
individuals with at least seven different medical issues were 35%
less likely to go to cardiac rehab.
Cardiac rehab also became less likely with advancing age. Compared
to people ages 65 to 74, those ages 75 to 84 were 7% less likely to
go to cardiac rehab and individuals 85 and older were 43% less
likely to go.
The study wasn't designed to prove whether or how any specific
factors cause patients to miss out on cardiac rehab.
One limitation of the analysis is that researchers relied on data
used for medical billing, and they lacked detailed medical
information on individual patients. Researchers also didn't know
whether patients received referrals for cardiac rehab, making it
unclear how many people missed out on it because they were not told
to go.
"Cardiac rehab remains underutilized despite its unequivocal
salubrious benefits," said Dr. Hani Jneid, director of
Interventional Cardiology at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical
Center and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
"We need additional work to identify the barriers to implementation
and more education of patients and healthcare providers," Jneid, who
wasn't involved in the study, said by email. "A comprehensive
cardiac rehab is best to complement an exercise-based regime, and if
institutional rehab is not feasible, home-based rehab should also be
considered."
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/35YPgI5 Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality
Outcomes, online January 14, 2020.
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