Gender differences in home-based cardiac rehabilitation of post-percutaneous coronary intervention patients

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a structured program for the prevention of secondary cardiovascular disease (CVD) and related diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. This study aimed to investigate whether there are gender differences after 9 months of home-based cardiac rehabilitation program in post-percutaneous coronary intervention patients. A total of 114 (58.29 ± 10.33 years) men and 30 (60.90 ± 9.32 years) women were enrolled in the CR program. The program included three visits: initial, 4th month (follow-up), and 9th month (final) visits at a CR center. The CR program included exercise and nutrition counseling. In nutrition counseling, a professional nutritionist educated the patients on how to organize the menu, incorporating an optimal caloric, low-salt, and low-cholesterol diet. Exercise was performed 30 min per session for more than 3 days per week with a target heart rate within 40–75% of the peak heart rate-resting heart rate (VO 2 reserve; VO 2 R) during intense exercise, which was based on ECG treadmill test. After 9 months, there was no significant difference in terms of dropout rate between men and women ( p