Comparing Virtual and Center-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation on Changes in Frailty

Evan MacEachern, Nicholas Giacomantonio, Olga Theou, Jack Quach, Wanda Firth, Ifedayo Abel-Adegbite and Dustin Scott Kehler ()
Additional contact information
Evan MacEachern: School of Physiotherapy, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada
Nicholas Giacomantonio: Department of Cardiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada
Olga Theou: School of Physiotherapy, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada
Jack Quach: Faculty of Health, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada
Wanda Firth: Hearts and Health in Motion, Nova Scotia Health, Halifax, NS B3L 0B7, Canada
Ifedayo Abel-Adegbite: Faculty of Health, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada
Dustin Scott Kehler: School of Physiotherapy, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 2, 1-16

Abstract: Many patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) are frail. Center-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) can improve frailty; however, whether virtual CR provides similar frailty improvements has not been examined. To answer this question, we (1) compared the effect of virtual and accelerated center-based CR on frailty and (2) determined if admission frailty affected frailty change and CVD biomarkers. The virtual and accelerated center-based CR programs provided exercise and education on nutrition, medication, exercise safety, and CVD. Frailty was measured with a 65-item frailty index. The primary outcome, frailty change, was analyzed with a two-way mixed ANOVA. Simple slopes analysis determined whether admission frailty affected frailty and CVD biomarker change by CR model type. Our results showed that admission frailty was higher in center-based versus virtual participants. However, we observed no main effect of CR model on frailty change. Results also revealed that participants who were frailer at CR admission observed greater frailty improvements and reductions in triglyceride and cholesterol levels when completing virtual versus accelerated center-based CR. Even though both program models did not change frailty, higher admission frailty was associated with greater frailty reductions and change to some CVD biomarkers in virtual CR.

Keywords: cardiac rehabilitation; virtual-care; frailty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/2/1554/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/2/1554/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:2:p:1554-:d:1036049

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().