Contemporary cardiac rehabilitation: patient characteristics and temporal trends over the past decade

Recent and dramatic therapeutic advances, aggressive care of the elderly, and a heightened awareness of secondary prevention have had a significant, albeit incompletely described, impact on cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs. The authors did a retrospective analysis on 1,848 patients from their phase II CR program that were treated over the past decade. The authors sought to identify and analyze how advances in cardiovascular care might be related to temporal changes in demographics, medical comorbidities, coronary artery disease risk factors, and cardiovascular history among individuals with cardiac disease who have completed the phase II CR program over a 10-year period.

Cardiac rehabilitation records were reviewed from 1986 to 1996 at Akron City Hospital. The data were compiled prospectively by nurses and exercise physiologists and were subsequently analyzed. The charts reviewed were from 1,848 patients who completed outpatient phase II CR.

The program began in 1986 with 53 patients completing CR and evolved to 309 in 1996. There has been an increase in the number of elderly patients referred to and completing the program. The number of participants older than 65 years of age increased from 28.3% in 1986 to 52.1% in 1996. Cardiac rehabilitation participants reflect the known demographics of patients with clinical coronary artery disease. Men outnumber women and, on average, the female participants are older than the male participants. There has been a statistically significant increase in medical comorbidities over the course of the study. Although the absolute number of patients entering CR after coronary artery bypass graft survey has remained fairly constant, there has been a dramatic increase in the absolute number of patients entering CR after percutaneous tansluminal coronary angioplasty (with the latter recently comprising a majority of CR participants).

There is a significant trend in the attendance and completion of CR programs by older individuals, which suggests a greater awareness of patients and their physicians. The growth of the program is fueled by high-risk patients with more comorbidities who potentially are the group of patients able to obtain the greatest absolute benefit from CR.