In-hospital rehabilitation at the recovery phase after acute myocardial infarction.
In order to investigate how rehabilitation during hospitalization influences the prognosis of patients with acute myocardial infarction, the authors investigated 496 cases, including 405 males and 91 females hospitalized in the institutes participating in the Cardiac Rehabilitation Research Conference, during the period of 10 years from 1969 through 1978. Patients' ages averaged 59.2 years for males and 66.5 years for females. The total number of deaths during the average follow-up period of 5 years and 7 months was 104 (21.0%), of which 73 cases of cardiac death were included, showing 14.7% of the total cases and 70.2% of the total deaths. The incidence of bed-ridden patients after discharge was as low as 1.0%, and the rate of returning to work varied according to age: it decreased from 86.7% to 9.3% with age, averaging 54.4%. The rate of rehabilitation performance in the hospitals was 73.7% for patients under 69 years of age and 48% for those under 70. The rate of cardiac death was 8.4% in the rehabilitated group (exercise group), and 27% in the non-rehabilitated (control) group, and the rates of returning to work were 50.2% and 25%, respectively, and there were significant differences in both the mortality rate and the working rate between these 2 groups (p less than 0.01). As for the severity of myocardial infarction, the more severe the disease, the wider the difference in the prognosis between the exercise and the control group.
D000368:Aged; D001510:Bed Rest; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000401:mortality / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011379:Prognosis