Short- and Longer-Term Association Between Body Mass Index and Health Status in Cardiac Rehabilitation Patients

PURPOSE: The association between body mass index (BMI) and subjective health status before and after cardiac rehabilitation (CR) and 1 year later was compared in patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) who did (CR group) and did not receive CR (no-CR group). The aim was to investigate the association between BMI and subjective health status based on the Short Form-12 questionnaire. METHODS: Between 2009 and 2011, 242 patients with pPCI with an acute myocardial infarction completed a CR program and were compared with 115 patients in the no-CR group. All patients completed the Short Form-12 questionnaire at baseline, at 12 weeks, and at 1-year followup. The CR program consisted of a 2 sessions per week for 1.5 hours each for 12 weeks. Patients were categorized into 3 groups based on BMI: normal weight, overweight, and obese. RESULTS: Compared with patients in the no-CR group, CR group patients in the overweight group significantly improved their subjective health status after CR and these improvements were sustained at 1-year followup. CR patients in the normal weight and obese groups did not significantly improve subjective health status. The overweight patients had the highest improvement in subjective health status (OR = 3.4 post-CR and 5.1 at 1 year of followup). CONCLUSIONS: After CR, overweight patients showed the best improvement in subjective health status. CR did not significantly improve subjective health status in normal-weight and obese patients.