Effectiveness of Cardiac Rehabilitation on Health-related Quality of Life in Patients with Myocardial Infarction in Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE

To find out the effectiveness of cardiac rehabilitation in patients with myocardial infarction in Pakistan.

STUDY DESIGN

Randomised controlled trial.

PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY

Cardiac Rehabilitation Unit, Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan, from July to December 2016.

METHODOLOGY

Patients suffering first myocardial infarction (MI) were randomly allocated to usual care or cardiac rehabilitation in a 1:1 ratio. Cardiac rehabilitation comprised two phases: 1-2 weeks during hospital stay followed by 6-7 weeks outpatient structured exercise programme. Two generic health related quality of life (HRQoL) outcomes (General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and Self-Rated Health (SRH)) and one post-MI specific tool (MacNew QLMI) were measured at baseline and at 8 weeks follow-up among both groups. Lower SRH and GHQ scores and higher MacNew QLMI scores indicate better health status. Data were analysed using STATA 14.

RESULTS

Out of 206 participants, 195 (94.6%) were analysed at the end of trial. The mean age was 53 +8.3 years. In the cardiac rehabilitation group, the mean SRH score changed from 3.97 +0.9 at baseline to 2.36 +0.8 at follow-up (p<0.001). The mean GHQ of the cardiac rehabilitation group was 21.26 +5.5 at baseline and it decreased significantly to 7.43 +4.2 at follow-up (p<0.001). The MacNew QLMI of the cardiac rehabilitation group increased from 3.61 +1.07 to 5.62 +0.5 (p<0.001). The multivariate regression of all three HRQoL measures confirmed better HRQoL following cardiac rehabilitation compared with usual care (all p<0.001).

CONCLUSION

Cardiac rehabilitation following MI was effective in terms of improving HRQoL and can be implement in Pakistan as it produced significant improvements in HRQoL.