CLEVELAND -- Even patients recovering from heart attacks and other serious cardiovascular problems have trouble maintaining a regular exercise program, according to researchers at Case Western Reserve University's Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. The research findings were presented today at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR) in Kansas City.
In a study of 83 patients who had heart attacks, bypass surgery or angioplasty (a technique to clear clogged blood vessels), researchers found that after completing a formal cardiac rehabilitation program, 12 patients (14 percent) did not exercise at all over the next year. In addition, the number of people exercising, and their exercise frequency and intensity, all decreased in the 12 months following cardiac rehabilitation.
"It is critical that we work with these people to find out why there is such a drop-off," said Shirley M. Moore, lead author of the study and associate dean for research at the Bolton School. "Either they don't understand what is considered aerobic exercise, or we've designed a program for them that's so uncomfortable that they're not doing it."
Moore and colleagues followed 28 women and 55 men of an average age of 62. After completing a standard 12-week cardiac rehabilitation program, patients were given heart rate monitors and instructed to wear them during exercise sessions over the next 12 months. Researchers asked them to exercise most days of the week for 35 to 45 minutes per session, recording their activity in a diary.
Though the duration of an exercise session remained constant at 48 minutes over the year, there were drop-offs in other exercise patterns measured
- The number of people not exercising in a given month increased from 15 (18 percent) in the first month to 46 people (55 percent) in the 12th month.
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The frequency of exercise per month decreased fro
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Contact: Jeffrey Bendix
JXB34@po.cwru.edu
216-368-6070
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