Introduction The notion that exercise is dangerous for patients with heart disease dogged the use of such treatment for the first half of the twentieth century. It was a further 30 years before exercise became accepted in rehabilitation. The controversy is made more diYcult by the fact that exercise may be dangerous for some patients in some circumstances. Exercise is now widely believed to ben...

BACKGROUND Overviews are a new approach to summarising evidence and synthesising results from related systematic reviews. OBJECTIVES To conduct an overview of Cochrane systematic reviews to provide a contemporary review of the evidence for delivery of cardiac rehabilitation, to identify opportunities for merging or splitting existing Cochrane reviews, and to identify current evidence gaps to ...

This article is the fourth of a 6-part JAMDA series devoted to medical ethics in the nursing home. In each issue, a case is presented from the Ethics Committee at the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for Aged (HRCA) in Boston, Massachusetts. Following a description of the case and a discussion of the ethical issues that the case raises, Dr. Steven Levenson discusses the implications for medical dir...

Results A previous heart condition was reported by 57.5% of participants and 7.5% had previously been referred to CR. More than half (52%) considered their condition ‘not serious at all’ or ‘slightly serious’ despite reporting a significant cardiac history. Transport, convenience, and flexible programs were raised as major considerations for planning future services. Most participants (69%) lis...

M ore than one of every five persons in the United States has cardiovascular disease. Despite the declining mortality rate due to cardiovascular illness observed since 1950,43% of all deaths are currently attributed to cardiovascular causes. Mortality among the 1.5 million persons who have a myocardial infarction (MI) accounts for more than 485 000 deaths annually. The morbidity and subsequent ...

Background: Cardiac rehabilitation following myocardial infarction reduces subsequent mortality, but uptake and adherence to rehabilitation programmes remains poor, particularly among women, the elderly and ethnic minority groups. Evidence of the effectiveness of home-based cardiac rehabilitation remains limited. This trial evaluates the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of homebased compare...

From January 28th to February 10th, 2008 the Italian Society of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention (GICR) conducted a national web-based survey aimed to provide specific and updated information on organization and core components of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) in Italy, and to describe, both in residential and out-patient settings, indications for CR, clinical characteristics of referred pat...

This study investigates gender differences in the barriers and incentives that are most influential in the coronary patient's decision to participate in cardiac rehabilitation programs (CRPs) and suggests strategies to counter these barriers. Patient surveys were administered to consecutive English-speaking attenders and referred nonattenders to a cardiac rehabilitation center at a university h...

BACKGROUND The goal of cardiac rehabilitation programs is not only to prolong life but also to improve physical functioning, symptoms, well-being, and health-related quality of life (HRQL). The aim of this study was to document the long-term effect of a 1-month inpatient cardiac rehabilitation intervention on HRQL in Austria. METHODS Patients (N = 487, 64.7% male, age 60.9 +/- 12.5 SD years) ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate predictors of depressive symptom aggravation at the end of a cardiac rehabilitation (CR) program. METHODS The design of the study was retrospective. The administrative data were obtained from the database of the CR department of a heart hospital in Iran. The demographic and clinical information of 615 CR patients between January 2000 and January 2010 was analyzed usin...