Higher compliance to a 3-month exercise therapy program was significantly associated with improvements in mental health, physical health, and 6-minute walk distance (r=0.36, P<0.001).
Observational (n=128)
Does 3 months of exercise therapy improve subjective and objective health status in older adults undergoing cardiac rehabilitation?
Short-term exercise therapy in cardiac rehabilitation significantly improves both subjective and objective health status, with greater benefits seen in patients with higher program compliance.
p-value: p=<0.001
The intent of this study was to examine whether gender and exercise compliance influenced changes in subjective and objective health status among older adults involved in the first 3-months phase of the Cardiovascular Health and Activity Maintenance Program (CHAMP). One hundred twenty-eight (67 men, 61 women) older adults whose health status qualified them for cardiac rehabilitation completed 3 months of exercise therapy in conjunction with brief educational lectures on various aspects of cardiovascular disease. The participants had a mean age (SD) of 64.55 (7.52) years. Pre- and post-intervention assessments included the mental health (MH) and physical health (PH) summary scores of the SF-36 and performance on a 6-min walk test. Paired sample t-test revealed significant improvements between baseline and 3-months on the MH (P < 0.001) and PH (p = 0.03) scales of the SF-36 as well as on 6-min walk test performance (P < 0.001). In ANCOVA analyses that controlled for baseline values of the outcomes, there was no evidence that men and women differed in improvement on MH, PH or 6-min walk test across the 3 months of training. By contrast, mean levels of attendance of the program were related to all three outcomes. Specifically, after controlling for baseline values in partial correlation analyses, mean attendance was found to be directly related to improvements in MH (r = 0.19, P < 0.05) and PH (r = 0.27, P < 0.01) scores from the SF-36 as well as 6-min walk distance (r = 0.36, P < 0.001). The somewhat small size of these correlations could be due, in part, to the fact that mean compliance during this period of exercise therapy was high (79.82%). These data suggest that men and women report similar improvements in subjective and objective health status after 3 months of exercise therapy in structured cardiac rehabilitation. Also, the results emphasize the fact that better compliance to exercise therapy is related to more favorable change in health outcomes.
Foy et al. (Tue,) conducted a observational in Cardiovascular disease requiring cardiac rehabilitation (n=128). Exercise therapy and educational lectures vs. Baseline was evaluated on Changes in mental health (MH) and physical health (PH) summary scores of the SF-36 and performance on a 6-min walk test (p=<0.001). Higher compliance to a 3-month exercise therapy program was significantly associated with improvements in mental health, physical health, and 6-minute walk distance (r=0.36, P<0.001).