Determinants of participation in cardiac rehabilitation phase IV

Reducing the wide spread incidences of coronary heart disease (CHD) is a clinical challenge for the public sectors within the NHS in the UK. The current study aimed to highlight the key barriers that affected participation within exercise based provisions of cardiac rehabilitation (CR). The study concentrated on the two exercise based phase (CR phase III and phase IV) and targeted those who had completed CR phase III. Information on patients who had completed the CR phase III within the previous year were sent a questionnaire to collect information on the patients’ actions after completing the CR phase III exercise based class. 35 (64.8%) males and 19 (35.2%) females returned questionnaires indicating their activity levels following a cardiac event and/or procedure. The results showed that from the patients that responded, 11 (20.4%) were currently attending the CR phase IV exercise based class, 7 (13.0%) has previously attended the Cr phase IV class and 36 (66.7%)had not attended the Cr phase IV exercise based class. The results were analysed using SPSS (version-16.0) for frequencies between the answers given. The results showed that despite the barriers expressed by the participants who did not participate in the community based phase IV exercise class, the service could be enhanced to encourage more to utilise the services provisions. As CHD is becoming more prevalent in younger adults, many of the participants who responded to the questionnaire stated that they had resumed employment and no longer had the time to participate in CR services. Despite this finding many acknowledged the importance of remaining active and living a healthier lifestyle in the aim of reducing further risk factors associated with CHD