Comparison of intensive outpatient cardiac rehabilitation to standard outpatient care in veterans: effects on quality of life

Examination of the effect of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) on quality of life has been relatively limited. The current study examined existing clinical data, which had been obtained during the course of program evaluation. Changes in quality of life for patients who participated in an intensive rehabilitation program and those who had received standard outpatient care only were compared. Quality-of-life changes in cardiac patients (n = 87) from two treatment groups were compared. Patients had either participated in an 8-week intensive CR program (n = 45) consisting of monitored exercise 3 days weekly and inter-disciplinary education sessions, or routine outpatient clinic services (n = 42). Patients in the intensive CR program demonstrated significant (P < 0.05-< 0.001) improvement in all areas of quality of life assessed. In contrast, patients that received routine outpatient care did not demonstrate any areas of improvement, while Vitality was significantly (P < 0.05) poorer at posttest. Our results suggest that provision of more intensive outpatient CR can improve quality of life more than standard outpatient care.