Does structured hospital-based outpatient cardiac rehabilitation improve lifestyle and psychosocial outcomes compared to home programs in male and female patients after coronary bypass surgery?
Structured hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation provides advantages over home programs in exercise adherence and specific psychosocial outcomes, particularly highlighting that females in home programs fare the worst in lifestyle changes.
This study compared gender differences in outcomes of patients who had had coronary bypass surgery and either attended structured cardiac rehabilitation programs or participated in home programs. The principal advantages related to patients' attending a structured hospital-based outpatient rehabilitation program, compared to a home program, included increased exercise adherence for males and females, increased knowledge about the condition for males, and increased stress control for females. Return to work, self-efficacy, and aspects of self-care such as adherence to a medication regimen and smoking cessation were not significantly different, regardless of type of program, for either sex. In general, females at home fared the worst regarding lifestyle changes, showing decreased exercise adherence, decreased ability to control stress, and no significant increase in knowledge about their medical condition.
Schuster et al. (Wed,) studied this question.