Changes in cardiorespiratory fitness, psychological wellbeing, quality of life, and vocational status following a 12 month cardiac exercise rehabilitation programme

Abstract

Objective-To examine and evaluate improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, psychological wellbeing, quality of life, and vocational status in postmyocardial infarction patients during and after a comprehensive 12 month exercise rehabilitation programme. Subjects-The sample population comprised 124 patients with a clinical diagnosis of myocardial infarction (122 men and two women). Interventions-62 patients were randomly allocated to a regular weekly aerobic training programme, three times a week for 12 months, and compared with 62 matched controls who did not receive any formal exercise training. A five year follow up questionnaire/interview was subsequently conducted on this population to determine selected vocational/lifestyle changes. Results-Significant improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness (p < 0.01-0.001), psychological profiles (p < 0.05-0.001), and quality of life scores (p < 0.001) were recorded in the treatment population when compared with their matched controls. Although there were no significant diVerences in mortality, a larger percentage of the regular exercisers resumed full time employment and they returned to work earlier than the controls. Controls took lighter jobs, lost more time from work, and suVered more non-fatal reinfarctions (p < 0.05-0.01). Conclusions-Regularly supervised and prolonged aerobic exercise training improves cardiorespiratory fitness, psychological status, and quality of life. The trained population also had a reduction in morbidity following myocardial infarction, and significant improvement in vocational status over a five year follow up period. (Heart 1999;81:359-366)

Quality of Life of Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction Treated with Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: Comparison of Quality of Life at Discharge and 6 Months after Discharge

“…Dugmore reported that AMI patients treated with IVCT are significantly less able to work 4 months after AMI 5) . Brown reported that physical and mental QOL scores are lower 1 month after AMI in patients treated with IVCT because of sleep pattern disturbance and anxiety about reinfarction 6) .…”

Impact of cardiac rehabilitation and exercise training programs in coronary heart disease

“…[102][103][104] Patients in the CR cohort also demonstrated a tendency to return to work sooner than those in the conventional care group. 105 Although most trials reported improved HRQoL with CR, meta-analyses were generally unavailable due to heterogeneity in the outcome measures used and varied data reporting. 87,95 Among patients with CHD, those who undergo percutaneous coronary intervention may experience higher HRQoL when compared with CABG over the short term, but the beneficial effects of CR for these patient subsets appear comparable at 2 years.…”

Deutsche Leitlinie zur Rehabilitation von Patienten mit Herz-Kreislauferkrankungen (DLL-KardReha)

“…Die Wiedereingliederung in den Beruf ist mit einer Verbesserung des psychischen Wohlbefindens assoziiert und die kardiologische Rehabilitation verbessert die berufliche Wiedereingliederung [58,75,153,157,378,[392][393][394].…”