Home-based cardiac rehabilitation offers comparable benefits to center-based programs and can overcome participation barriers, though funding remains a primary obstacle to universal implementation.
Does home-based cardiac rehabilitation help overcome barriers to attendance compared to traditional center-based cardiac rehabilitation?
Home-based cardiac rehabilitation offers a viable alternative to center-based programs to overcome attendance barriers, though funding challenges remain.
INTRODUCTION: Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) significantly reduces secondary cardiovascular events and mortality and is a class 1A recommendation by the American Heart Association (AHA) and American College of Cardiology (ACC). However, it remains an underutilized intervention and many eligible patients fail to enroll or complete CR programs. The aim of this review is to identify barriers to CR attendance and discuss strategies to overcome them. AREAS COVERED: Specific barriers to CR attendance and participation will be reviewed. This will be followed by a discussion of solutions/strategies to help overcome these barriers with a particular focus on home-based CR (HBCR). EXPERT OPINION: HBCR alone or in combination with center-based CR (CBCR) can help overcome many barriers to traditional CBCR participation, such as schedule flexibility, time commitment, travel distance, cost, and patient preference. Using remote coaching with indirect exercise supervision, HBCR has been shown to have comparable benefits to CBCR. At this time, however, funding remains the main barrier to universal incorporation of HBCR into health systems, necessitating the need for additional cost benefit analysis and outcome studies. Ultimately, the choice for HBCR should be based on patient preference and availability of resources.
Chindhy et al. (Fri,) conducted a review in Cardiac rehabilitation. Home-based cardiac rehabilitation (HBCR) vs. Center-based cardiac rehabilitation (CBCR) was evaluated. Home-based cardiac rehabilitation offers comparable benefits to center-based programs and can overcome participation barriers, though funding remains a primary obstacle to universal implementation.