[Return to work in patients with heart disease after cardiac rehabilitation]

Cardiac rehabilitation is a secondary prevention strategy which it includes a set of activities that would assure cardiac patients a place as normal as it could be into the society, being also essential for going back to work, by improving their quality of life and reducing costs for institutions.

A non-randomized clinical study was conducted at the "Siglo XXI" Cardiology Hospital; We included patients with the diagnosis of ischemic heart disease and/or valve disease, the response variables were: percentage of patients going back to work and disability time upon return to duty. Cardiac rehabilitation program was applied for 1 month and followed up at 2 months and 1 year.

Two groups were formed, the ones who received cardiac rehabilitation, N = 40 (experimental group) against a control group, N = 25. The percentage of patients going back to work with a cardiac rehabilitation was 75 % versus 60 % of the group did not receive cardiac rehabilitation, p = 0.2, with a mean of 68 days of disability in the experimental group against 128 in the control group, p = 0.001.

The experimental group showed a higher percentage of patients who returned to work, working time reentry (in days) was lower compared to the control group.