67% of cardiac rehab clinicians personally use activity trackers and 69% recommend them, but 77% cite funding and 70% leadership support as main barriers to use.
Despite high perceived utility among clinicians, the implementation of activity trackers in cardiac rehabilitation faces significant system-level barriers such as limited funding and lack of leadership support.
Absolute Event Rate: 0% vs 0%
Abstract Background Wearable activity trackers can improve cardiorespiratory fitness by promoting physical activity in patients with heart disease participating in cardiac rehabilitation (CR). However, these trackers are not consistently or widely implemented in CR programs where physical activity promotion is crucial. This study aimed to identify barriers and enablers associated with the use of activity trackers in CR programs and provide considerations for implementation in clinical practice. Methods This multi-national cross-sectional study was conducted in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Norway and the United Kingdom from April 2023 to December 2024. Multidisciplinary clinicians working in CR completed a purpose-built online survey using the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) platform. The survey included questions about (1) sociodemographic details, (2) personal and professional use of activity trackers, (3) perspectives on the use of activity trackers for CR, and (4) perceptions of factors affecting the use of activity trackers in CR. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Results A total of 308 clinicians participated in the study. Most were women (77%) with a median age of 40 years (range 22-71). The most common profession was physiotherapy (36%) and median length of time working in CR was 6 years (range 1-48). Of the participants, 67% personally used activity trackers and 69% recommended their use in their clinical practice. Clinicians perceived activity trackers as useful for engaging patients in managing their own health (95%), boosting patient adherence to prescribed exercise (86%) and helping patients understand their health condition (74%). Common barriers for implementing activity trackers in CR included limited or no funding (77%), lack of support from leadership (70%), and absence of relevant policies (54%). A minority (22%) were concerned about data security, privacy and confidentiality issues. Key enablers for clinicians included confidence to integrate activity trackers in directed exercise (73%), having the time to familiarize themselves with activity trackers (67%), being motivated to use activity trackers (57%), and having proper training about the use of activity trackers in clinical practice (36%). Considerations for implementation of activity trackers in clinical practice are summarised in Figure 1. Conclusion Barriers and enablers identified in this study were both related to system and clinician level factors. Strategies to increase the use of activity trackers in clinical practice that address these factors must be tested using robust methods. The development of specific advice for clinical practice using implementation science approaches is needed to ensure effective integration of activity trackers into clinical practice.
Pettersen et al. (Sat,) reported a other. 67% of cardiac rehab clinicians personally use activity trackers and 69% recommend them, but 77% cite funding and 70% leadership support as main barriers to use.