'Exercise as medicine' of most benefit to disadvantaged

• Cardiac rehabilitation may contribute to reducing health disparities
• Hospital admissions reduced across the board

Exercise programmes following heart attack or angina most benefit patients with lower educational levels, according to a study involving Liverpool John Moores University.

Patient quality of life improves for all patients who stick to prescribed behaviour when recovering from a serious heart ‘scare’ but it is most marked among the lower socio-economic groups, say researchers.

Cardiac rehabilitation typically includes supervised exercise, such as circuit -based training, walking and cycling, often combined with education and social support.

Dr Ben Buckley, a senior lecturer in cardiovascular physiology at LJMU, said: “These results not only reinforce that everyone recovering from a myocardial infarction can benefit from attending cardiac rehabilitation, but also suggest that those most at risk and vulnerable to future ill health may stand to gain the greatest benefit.”

According to the British Heart Foundation, approximately 100,000 people are admitted to hospital each year due to heart attack and an estimated 335,000 new diagnoses of angina pectoris are made annually.

Cardiac rehabilitation may contribute to reducing health inequalities

Dr ben Buckley, Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, LJMU

Dr Buckley, conducted the analysis with Radboud University Medical Center, in the Netherlands and the University of Glasgow.

They combined data from nearly 5,000 individuals with coronary artery disease across eight recent international trials. Half of the participants took part in a cardiac rehabilitation program, while the other half did not. The researchers aimed to assess how effective these programs and whether they work better for certain groups.

The results show that heart patients who participated in cardiac rehabilitation were less likely to be hospitalised in the three years following the programme—both due to new cardiac events (38%) and other causes (32%). They also reported a better quality of life up to one year after completing the programme.

The results are published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology: Exercise-based Cardiac Rehabilitation for Coronary Heart Disease – the CaReMATCH individual participant data meta-analysis. Authors: Niels A. Stens, Benjamin JR Buckley, Grace O. Dibben, Laurien M. Buffart, Geert Kleinnibbelink, Dorairaj Prabhakaran, Ambalam M. Chandrasekaran, Sanjay Kinra, Ambuj Roy, Gianluca Campo, Arto J. Hautala, Johan A. Snoek, Ralph Maddison, Núria Santaularia, Scott A. Lear, Julie Houle, Gregory Y.H. Lip, Niels van Royen, Rod S. Taylor, Dick H.J. Thijssen, CaReMATCH collaborators. DOI: 10.1093/eurjpc/zwaf629