Article

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) has been shown to generally increase
functional capacity and lower cardiovascular morbidity in patients with ischemic
heart disease. The effectiveness of CR in female participants, however, is
unclear. We thus examined whether improvement in functional capacity after CR
differs between men and women with ischemic heart disease. METHODS: Our study was
a retrospective cohort study that included 1104 participants (346 women and 758
men) enrolled in CR from 2002 through 2011. We measured change in metabolic
equivalents (METs) after CR to assess improvement in functional capacity in male
and female participants. We considered various potential confounders, including
baseline METs, CR referral indication, age, race, body mass index, baseline
cholesterol, and home zip code average prosperity. RESULTS: Men experienced a
greater improvement in METs following CR in all models, including the unadjusted
model (2.16 METs in men, 1.65 METs in women; P = .0001), the model adjusting for
CR indication only (2.15 METs in men, 1.67 METs in women; P = .0003), and the
model adjusting for age, body mass index, and CR indication (2.12 METs in men,
1.66 METs in women; P = .0004). CONCLUSIONS: We show that men obtain greater
benefit from current CR programs than do women. This implies that tailoring CR
programs to women may yield further improvement in functional capacity for female
CR participants.

Langue : ANGLAIS

Tiré à part : OUI