Effectiveness of cardiac rehabilitation program to enhance quality of life on patients with post myocardial infarction (2015)

Abstract

Introduction: Myocardial infarction is a life threatening heart disease and a major public health problem all over the world. Health is defined by WHO is a state of complete mental and physical, social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity and this applies as a whole to rehabilitation of cardiac patients. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is the enhancement and maintenance of cardiovascular health through individualized programs designed to psychological, optimize physical, vocational, social, and emotional status. Methods: A quantitative research approach with Quasi-experimental one-group pre-test post-test design was used. Non probability convenient sampling technique was used to select 100 patients with myocardial infarction at The department of cardiology, Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital, Chennai. Results: Regarding knowledge, In the pre test41.0% of patients had poor adherence, Mean±SD 16.92±3.80 with co efficient of variation was 22.5% and in the post test76.0% of them had excellent adherence, Mean±SD 45.84±3.29 with co efficient of variation was 7.2%. The calculated‘t’ value was 94.42 at P=0.001 which was highly significant. Regarding quality of life (QOL), In the pre-test81 patients had average QOL, Mean±SD80.28±13.77 and in post-test 82 patients had excellent QOL, Mean±SD151.34±12.92. The calculated‘t’ value was122.34 at P<0.001. Overall QOL score differed statistically significant between visits (F (3,297) = 511.02, P < 0.001). Conclusion: It is concluded that CRP can improve cardiac status with enhanced quality of life and functional status, and reduce hospitalization, recurrent MI, and long-term mortality. However provided, high level of adherence is obtained through effective cardiac rehabilitation programme.