Women's compliance with cardiac rehabilitation programs.

As the incidence of cardiovascular disease in women increases, the process of cardiac rehabilitation in women is becoming increasingly important to nurses. Specifically, the issue of women's compliance with cardiac rehabilitation needs to be addressed by nurses. Most past and current research on cardiac rehabilitation and compliance with rehabilitation programs has been conducted on male subjects and cannot be accurately generalized to the female population. This article reviews current literature which addresses the issues of heart disease in women, cardiac rehabilitation and compliance in the general population, gender differences in cardiac rehabilitation, and compliance of women in cardiac rehabilitation.