Cardiac rehabilitation effects on quality of life in patients after acute myocardial infarction.

Aim of this study was to investigate the significance of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) on Health Related Quality of Life ( HRQoL) in post acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients. Methods. A total number off 110 individuals divided in 3 groups was included in the study. Group A consisted of 60 post-AMI pts participating in a CR program. It was a multidisciplinary rehabilitative approach including supervised bike exercise, with parallel education, counselling, psychological and social support, performed 3 times per week for 2 months after AMI . Group B consisted of 40 post-AMI pts not participating in any CR program while the control group C consisted of 10 apparently healthy people. HRQoL was evaluated by the Velasco-Del Barrio questionnaire. Questions on this questionnaire are reffered to 9 categories (health, sleep and rest, emotional behavior, concerns for the future, mobility, social interaction, alertness behavior, communication, work and leisure time). A 5-point scale (1=all of the time, 5=none of the time) and a special (1 to 8) coefficient for each parameter were used for the evaluation of each parameter. The highest score of 220 indicates the poorest QL. Results. Group A pts had better score of HRQoL as compared to Group B (94±3 vs 114±3, p<0.001) and slightly worse than Group C pts (94±4 vs 69±3, p<0.01).Significant difference was found among Group A and B pts regarding the most important evaluated parameters such as symptoms (17±6.8 vs 22±6.5, p<0.001) and social behavior (21±4.2 vs 23±5.5, p<0.0001).Conclusion. It is concluded that participation in a multidisciplinary CR program significantly improves HRQoL in post AMI pts. All these pts must urged to take part in such programs.