1/24/24 Cardiac rehabilitation treats patients with heart disease through exercise, lifestyle education, and stress reduction counseling. But previous evidence on how well it works at preventing future heart issues has been mixed, perhaps because some studies have not considered factors that affect a person’s ability to participate in the treatment, such as their distance from a cardiac rehabilitation center.
A recent study controlled for factors related to patients’ ability to participate in cardiac rehabilitation. Its findings suggested that participating in 1 or more sessions reduced the risk of hospital readmission or death by about 43% for patients with a history of myocardial infarctions or treatments for blocked coronary arteries.
The findings were based on data from more than 2600 participants, with the majority attending 5 or more sessions. The results highlight the need for future research to “identify and control for as many key individual-level variables as possible” to determine the benefits of cardiac rehabilitation, the researchers wrote in the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention.
Article Information
Emily Harris
JAMA. 2024;331(6):466. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.27969