Barriers to physical activity and patient profiling in the lifelong maintenance phase of coronary artery disease: a territorial mixed-methods pilot study.
Morgane Molina, Fabienne Durand, Henri Meric
PMID 41103284WHAT IT FOUND
Patients prioritized environmental factors and motivation over physical limitations.
Three distinct profiles emerged: those limited by fatigue, those by environment, and those by work demands. No single barrier fits all, suggesting tailored follow-up is needed.
Key findings
01Environmental factors and motivation were ranked as the most significant barriers, surpassing physical limitations.
02K-means clustering identified three distinct patient profiles based on barrier patterns: physical limitations, environmental/motivational barriers, and occupational/time pressures.
03Participants reported no engagement in structured or supervised long-term maintenance cardiac rehabilitation.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Very small sample size (26 in Round 1, 13 in Round 2) limits generalizability. High attrition rate (50%) between rounds with no reasons collected. Predominantly male (92.3%) and highly educated sample, lacking diversity in gender and socioeconomic status. Geographic restriction to the Eastern Pyrenees. No clinical severity indicators were collected, preventing analysis of barrier variation by disease stage. Pilot design with no formal sample size calculation.
Declared interests
The authors declare no financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume these barrier rankings apply to all cardiac patients or that the three clusters are stable diagnostic categories. The sample was tiny, highly selected, and predominantly male, so these profiles are hypothesis-generating rather than confirmed subgroups.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →