Clinical Effectiveness of a Community-Based Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Program (Intervent Usa) in Lower Risk Patients With Coronary Artery Disease

3:45 PM Cost and accessibility contribute to relatively low participation rates in traditional phase 2 cardiac rehabilitation programs. We compared the clinical effectiveness of a less costly and potentially more accessible community-based program (INTERVENT USA) with that of a traditional phase 2 cardiac rehabilitation program. Lower risk patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of participation in the cardiac rehabilitation program (Group A, n = 35) or INTERVENT USA (Group B, n = 35). For patients with abnormal baseline values, statistically significant (P < 0.05) improvements were observed in both groups for a variety of CAD risk factors and functional capacity, including systolic blood pressure (Group A, −8 mmHg; Group B, −12 mmHg), diastolic blood pressure (Group A, −8 mmHg; Group B, −7 mmHg), LDL cholesterol (Group A, −18 mg/dl; Group B, −29 mg/dl), weight (Group A, −2.7 lbs; Group B, −5.6 lbs), and maximal oxygen uptake (Group A, 10.6%; Group B, 9.4%). No significant differences between Groups A and B were observed for these variables. These data serve to document the clinical effectiveness of INTERVENT USA in lower risk CAD patients. Our findings have important ramifications for cost containment in cardiovascular medicine and for increasing accessibility to comprehensive risk reduction services.