Remote cardiac rehabilitation is a good alternative of outpatient cardiac rehabilitation in the COVID-19 era
- PDF / 839,441 Bytes
- 6 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 42 Downloads / 217 Views
(2020) 25:48
Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Remote cardiac rehabilitation is a good alternative of outpatient cardiac rehabilitation in the COVID-19 era Atsuko Nakayama1*, Naoko Takayama2, Momoko Kobayashi2, Kanako Hyodo2, Naomi Maeshima2, Fujiwara Takayuki1, Hiroyuki Morita1* and Issei Komuro1
Abstract Background: In the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, people need to practice social distancing in order to protect themselves from SARS-CoV-2 infection. In such stressful situations, remote cardiac rehabilitation (CR) might be a viable alternative to the outpatient CR program. Methods: We prospectively investigated patients hospitalized for heart failure (HF) with a left ventricular ejection fraction of < 50%. As for patients who participated in the remote CR program, telephone support was provided by cardiologists and nurses who specialized in HF every 2 weeks after discharge. The emergency readmission rate within 30 days of discharge was compared among the outpatient CR, remote CR, and non-CR groups, and the EQ5D score was compared between the outpatient CR and remote CR groups. Results: The participation rate of HF patients in our remote CR program elevated during the COVID-19 pandemic. As observed in the outpatient CR group (n = 69), the emergency readmission rate within 30 days of discharge was lower in the remote CR group (n = 30) than in the non-CR group (n = 137) (P = 0.02). The EQ-5D score was higher in the remote CR group than in the outpatient CR group (P = 0.03) 30 days after discharge. Conclusions: Remote CR is as effective as outpatient CR for improving the short-term prognosis of patients hospitalized for heart failure post-discharge. This suggests that the remote CR program can be provided as a good alternative to the outpatient CR program. Keywords: Cardiac rehabilitation, Remote medicine, COVID-19
Background In the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, people worldwide are trying to prevent the spread of infection by practicing social distancing. Prolonged isolation at home leads to reduced physical activity in the general population, and the risks associated with physical inactivity are elevated, especially in patients with cardiac disease. However, now, many hospitals may not provide outpatient * Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] 1 Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
cardiac rehabilitation (CR) services in order to minimize the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in hospitals. In Japan, the first coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case was reported on January 16, 2020; at that time, most hospitals continued outpatient CR. However, the incidence rate of infection gradually increased, and outpatient CR in Japan required close attention. During this period, we prohibited patients with common cold symptoms such as fever from participat
Data Loading...
