Physical activity and sedentary behaviour changes during and after cardiac rehabilitation: Can patients be clustered?
Marlou M Limpens, Rita J G Van den Berg, Iris Den Uijl and 4 others
PMID 37435716WHAT IT FOUND
Most cardiac rehab patients show steady physical activity levels, but distinct groups improve or deteriorate.
High baseline activity predicts later decline, while smoking and obesity predict lack of improvement. Patients need assessment before and after rehab, as those needing help differ at each stage.
Key findings
01Patients clustered into three groups based on physical behaviour changes: steady (majority), improving, or deteriorating.
02High baseline physical activity levels were the main predictor of membership in the deteriorating cluster.
03Membership in a cluster during rehab did not predict membership in a cluster after rehab, indicating patients needing support change over time.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study pooled three different cardiac rehab arms because no clinically relevant differences were found between them, limiting the ability to attribute changes to specific intervention components. No control group of patients who did not attend cardiac rehab was included, so the effect of rehab versus no rehab on physical behaviour cannot be evaluated. The majority of patients were in the 'steady' cluster, making the 'improving' and 'deteriorating' clusters small and limiting the statistical power to identify strong predictors for these groups. Information on pre-event physical activity levels and psychological factors like coping or motivation was not available.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret high baseline physical activity as a sign of resilience. In this study, patients with higher starting activity levels were more likely to belong to the deteriorating cluster, suggesting they may need more support, not less, to maintain their behaviour.