Availability and perception of the importance of cardiac rehabilitation among health-care professionals in North-Western Nigeria

Background: Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is an important secondary prevention programme utilized for mitigating the burden of cardiovascular diseases. Information on the availability of CR in Nigeria has not been previously documented. Therefore, this study investigated the availability of CR and perception of its importance among health care personnel in North western Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A researcher designed questionnaire assessing the availability and perception of the importance of CR was used to collect the information from health care professionals that have roles to play in CR in seven tertiary health facilities in North western Nigeria. A total of 350 questionnaires were administered to the health professionals with a return rate of 70%. Results: CR was reported to be available by 4.08% of the respondents across only three of the selected hospitals. Physiotherapists, cardiologists, dieticians, and nurses were the most commonly involved health professionals with interventions not based on a comprehensive, coordinated multidisciplinary approach. The nonpharmacological components of CR mostly offered were smoking cessation, nutritional, and physical activity counseling with exercise training. Although CR was not available in most of the facilities, a large proportion (70%) of the respondents had good perception of its importance. Conclusion: We concluded that CR programmes were not available in North western Nigeria giving the small proportion of respondents who claimed it was available only used its components in a fragmented or uncoordinated fashion which does not constitute CR.