Effect of home-based exercise rehabilitation on quality of life early post-dischargeafter coronary artery bypass graft and percutaneous coronary intervention

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The barriers to participation in cardiac rehabilitation programs are individual
and economic problemsas well aslimited availability of rehabilitation services. Because of the
important role of rehabilitation, home-basedexercise rehabilitation is a new approach to
participate in such programs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate theeffect of home-based
rehabilitation on quality of life (QoL) in patients with coronary artery disease after
coronaryartery bypass graft (CABG) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
METHODS: Participants included 18 CABG (3 women, 15 men) and 40 PCI (12 women, 28
men) low tomoderate risk patients. Finally, 17 patients in the exercise group and 16 patients in
the control group remained. The SF-36 was used to evaluate changes in QoL before and after the
program.
RESULTS: forty-three percent was dropped out from the program. Before and after program,
the exercise group was betterin all domains of QoL (P <0.05). After 8 weeks of cardiac
rehabilitation, significant improvements were observed inquality of life in both groups (P<0.05)
but the exercise group showed more improvements in three domains.
CONCLUSION: Home-based exercise rehabilitation after CABG and PCI may improve QoL and
provide an efficient low-costapproach to cardiac rehabilitation. It may be helpful due to limited
availability and resources in Iran. Nevertheless,there is a need for more trainingto increase
participation and decrease drop out

Keywords: Quality of life,Coronary artery bypass grafts, Angioplasty.