Psychosocial issues for cardiac rehabilitation with older individuals

Psychological management of older people undergoing cardiac rehabilitation should be delivered, in the main, as it is to younger people with the heterogeneity of patient characteristics taken as standard. General considerations in delivering a service to older people include societal definitions of ageing, the profile of older cardiac patient groups, ageism as practised by both health professionals and patients, psychological issues of particular relevance to ageing and evidence from scientific studies with older individuals. These topics are considered in this review. The challenge is to develop a system which includes and is responsive to this growing subgroup of patients who can benefit from cardiac rehabilitation.