Cardiovascular rehabilitation improves functional capacity of patients with heart disease after 3 years of follow up

Abstract

Objective: To follow the cardiovascular and functional parameters of cardiac patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation in phase 4, during 3 years. Methods: Retrospective study of 11 patients in cardiac rehabilitation program supervised during three years. Data were collected from medical records related to assessments performed at the end of the first and third year of rehabilitation. The rehabilitation program was performed twice a week, lasting 60 minutes per session. Statistical analysis was performed using the Shapiro-Wilk test to verify the normality of the data. For comparison of the parametric variables was performed the Student’s t-test and, for the non-parametric variables, the MannWhitney test was applied. The level of significance was 5%. Results: The results showed hypertension as the most frequent cardiovascular disease in this group, in 11 patients (100%). Patients were considered overweight (25.89 ± 2.51 kg/m2). Regarding functional capacity, was observed a significant improvement (TC6M 1st evaluation: 454.4 ± 110.4 m; 2nd evaluation: 588.0 ± 100.2 m, p=0.006). The other variables did not differ between the two moments. Conclusion: The continuous physical training improved the functional capacity of patients after 3 years of follow-up of cardiovascular rehabilitation.