Cardiac Rehabilitation: Patient Recall of Exercise Guidelines and Implications for Physical Therapists

The efficacy of a cardiac rehabilitation program depends on adequate patient compliance. Patients with coronary heart disease and those recovering from heart surgery may have a successful recovery from acute episodes of myocardial infarction or following operation. It must be recognized that they may require long-term supervision and support. The purpose of this study was to identify if diagnosis of myocardial infarction or heart surgery was a determinant of compliance with exercise guidelines once a patient has graduated from a level II cardiac rehabilitation program. A retrospective chart audit was performed for the years 1991-1994. A data sheet was used to record diagnosis, exercise parameters, and target heart rate as recalled by the patient six months after graduation from a level II cardiac rehabilitation program. Factors were analyzed using traditional descriptive and analytical statistics to reflect a hierarchy for prognostic value