Clinician perspectives on activity trackers for cardiac rehabilitation: a multinational study

Activity trackers are not consistently or widely implemented in cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programmes despite physical activity promotion being crucial. Therefore, we aimed to (i) describe perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours of CR clinicians towards the use and usefulness of activity trackers in CR programmes, (ii) identify barriers and enablers associated with their personal and clinical use using a mediation analysis approach, and (iii) provide recommendations for implementation in clinical practice.

Multinational cross-sectional study conducted in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Norway, and the United Kingdom. Multidisciplinary CR clinicians completed a purpose-built survey including sociodemographic details, personal and professional use of trackers, perspectives on the use of trackers for CR, and perceptions of factors affecting the use of trackers in CR (the outcome). The anticipated effect of usefulness and ease of use of activity trackers on the outcome was modelled using mediation analyses. Participants (n = 308) had a median age of 41 (range 22-71) years, 36% were physiotherapists, 67% personally used activity trackers, and 67% recommended their use in clinical practice. Activity trackers were perceived to be helpful for goal setting and exercise monitoring (86%), collecting accurate data (68%), and promoting patient engagement and autonomy (68%). Clinicians more motivated to use activity trackers were more than 55 times more likely to recommend these in practice (OR = 55.3, 95% CI 10.9-279.7), after adjusting for possible available confounders.

Clinician motivation is a key driver in the use and recommendation of activity trackers in clinical practice.