Support Life Club: A New Model Based on Social Media Group Chats and Social Activities That Can Improve Adherence and Clinical Outcomes in Patients Receiving Cardiac Rehabilitation

Aim: To describe a new model, the Support Life Club (SLC), for participants of Phase II cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs and to evaluate this model for adherence, completion rates, and clinical outcomes. Methods: This retrospective study involved 391 consecutive patients who participated in an outpatient CR program between September 2016 and May 2020. The intervention group (SLC) was comprised of 198 patients who participated in education, WeChat-based group activity as well as outdoor activities, while the control group (non-intervention) was comprised of 193 cases. All patients attended a 12-week supervised outpatient CR program (three sessions per week, each lasting 40min). The intervention and control groups were compared for completion rates, Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test (CPET) results, Six-minute Walk Test (6MWT) distances, and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scores. Results: Patients in the intervention group attended at least 75% of the exercise training sessions more often than those in the control group (72.5% vs 40.41%, adjusted odds ratio (OR): 27.385; 95% CI: 10.2 to 73.6; P = 0.0000). Analysis of variance (2x2 ANOVA) revealed a significant group-by-time interaction in PHQ9 and 6MWT test results (p = 0.000). Conclusion: The addition of SLC to a cardiac rehabilitation program resulted in better outcomes for PHQ9 and 6MWT tests and may be a useful strategy to improve exercise adherence. Keywords: cardiac rehabilitation, support life club, adherence, completion rate, WeChat platform