Article

Although participation in either center- or home-based cardiac
rehabilitation (CR) can improve exercise capacity, the sustainability of this
improvement following completion of the CR program is challenging. The purpose of
this study was to compare the immediate and 1-year effectiveness of center-
versus home-based CR on exercise capacity in cardiac patients who were given the
choice of participating in a center-based or home-based CR program. METHODS: This
was a retrospective study, which relied on the database from a large
multidisciplinary CR program. A sample of 3488 cardiac patients participated
either in center-based (n = 2803) or home-based (n = 685) CR. Participants
underwent exercise testing at baseline, after 12 weeks of CR and again 1 year
after completion of the CR programs. RESULTS: Following CR, exercise capacity
(ie, peak metabolic equivalents [METs]) increased significantly in both groups (P
< .05). From post-CR to the 1-year followup, exercise capacity remained unchanged
in home-based CR participants (P = .183), whereas the center-based CR group
demonstrated a decline in exercise capacity (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Although at
the 1-year followup exercise capacity decreased in the center-based group, the
observed decline did not seem to be clinically significant. The present findings
indicate that when the patients were given a choice as to the delivery model
(center- vs home-based) used for their CR program, they were relatively
successful in retaining the improvement in exercise capacity 1 year post-CR
irrespective of the exact location for their exercise training.

Langue : ANGLAIS