Key result
Teleprehabilitation cuts postoperative nutritional risk to with standard care.
Why the study?
To evaluate the long-term effects of teleprehabilitation on modifiable risk factors and quality of life up to one year after elective cardiac surgery.
Does a multimodal teleprehabilitation program improve modifiable risk factors and quality of life in adult patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery?
RCT (n=388)
Open-label
1:1
Yes
Does a multimodal teleprehabilitation program improve modifiable risk factors and quality of life in adult patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery?
A personalized multimodal teleprehabilitation program before elective cardiac surgery provides sustained long-term benefits in smoking cessation, nutritional optimization, and quality of life up to one year postoperatively.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Supports teleprehabilitation before elective cardiac surgery to improve long-term nutrition, smoking cessation, and quality of life; extends short-term RCT benefits to 1-year outcomes.
Objectives To assess the long-term effects of teleprehabilitation on modifiable risk factors and quality of life up to one year following elective cardiac surgery. Methods This secondary analysis of the Digital Cardiac Counselling trial, a randomized controlled trial, compared multimodal teleprehabilitation with standard care in patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery. The teleprehabilitation program targeted physical fitness, inspiratory muscle training, psychological support, nutritional optimization, and smoking cessation. Outcomes included trajectories of modifiable risk factors and quality of life measured preoperatively and at 3, 6, and 12 months postoperatively. Generalized linear mixed models assessed differences over time between groups, with exploratory post hoc analyses for individual time points. Results Both groups showed postoperative reductions in all assessed modifiable risk factors and improvements in quality of life over time (p < 0.001), except for nutritional optimization (p = 0.173). Teleprehabilitation was associated with more favorable trajectories for smoking behavior (p = 0.045) and nutritional risk (p = 0.011), with consistently lower incidences throughout follow-up. Smoking prevalence remained significantly lower in the teleprehabilitation group at all-time points (p < 0.05), while malnutrition prevalence was lower at three months postoperatively (p = 0.012). Quality-of-life scores were consistently higher in the teleprehabilitation group throughout follow-up (p = 0.002). Conclusions Teleprehabilitation in cardiac surgery patients not only reduces postoperative complications, but may also provide additional long-term benefits, particularly in smoking cessation, nutritional optimization, and quality of life. These findings support teleprehabilitation as a valuable addition to standard preoperative care, with possible sustained benefits on long-term lifestyle and quality of life.
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Susante et al. (2026) conducted an RCT in Elective cardiac surgery (n=388). Multimodal teleprehabilitation program vs. Standard care was evaluated on Nutritional risk at 3 months postoperatively (OR 11.2, 95% CI 1.7-73.4, p=0.012). Teleprehabilitation reduced nutritional risk at 3 months postoperatively and was associated with more favorable long-term trajectories for smoking cessation and quality of life compared to standard care.
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