CARDIAC REHABILITATION UPTAKE FOLLOWING MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION, PERCUTANEOUS CORONARY INTERVENTION AND CARDIAC SURGERY: A LOCAL SCENARIO

BACKGROUND The suboptimal utilization of Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) poses a challenge to health policy makers in the prevention and management of coronary heart diseases. Therefore, there is an increased need to understand the factors affecting CR attendance, to reduce the wide gap between the proven benefits of CR and its clinically low utilization. OBJECTIVE To determine attendance rate and factors affecting outpatient CR enrollment METHODS Total 2267 patients were included where the eligibility criterion was set according to broadened candidacy for CR programs. Patients with severe functional impairment or any co-existing debilitating morbidities in which exercise was contraindicated were excluded. RESULTS The mean age of patients was 57.43±12.2 years and 75.7% were males. Out of 221 (10%) enrolled patients, 188 patients (83.2%) completed >6 weeks of outpatient CR and 49.6% patients had undergone CABG surgery. Significant association was found between CR attendance and patient's medical diagnosis & procedure (P<0.01), ethnicity (P<0.05) and educational level (P<0.01). No association was found between CR attendance and patient's gender, age and employment status. Among non-attendees, 58.6% had undergone PCI and 16.2% had no formal education. CONCLUSION Patients who were educated and underwent CABG surgery had better attendance. Considerable efforts need to be taken to use patient-specific CR to reduce ethnic and cultural barriers.