Factors predicting discontinuation of a hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation programme.
BACKGROUND
Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programmes play an important role in the management of patients with coronary artery disease. However, a significant proportion of patients do not participate or do not complete CR.


OBJECTIVE
To asses the prevalence and predictors of discontinuation of a hospital-based CR programme and to investigate whether or not the completers and dropouts differed in relation to their baseline characteristics.


METHODS
Data used for analysis were from a hospital-based CR programme involving 1986 discharged patients at Tehran Heart Centre between July 2004 and January 2006. The patients who completed all 24 sessions of the CR programme were compared with the dropouts.


RESULTS
The CR completion rate was 18.1% (average of 11.4+/-8.1, ranging from 1 to 78 sessions) including patients who completed 24 (n=284) or more sessions (n=77) of the CR programme. Factors predicting dropout were male gender (OR 1.441, p=0.0094), younger age (OR 0.979, p=0.005), and lower levels of education (OR 0.412, p <0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
The present study demonstrated a relatively high rate of CR programme dropout. Only less than a fifth of the patients completed this hospital-based programme. Patients who were male and younger and had lower education levels were better likely to drop out of the CR programme. Social support and educational programmes may be helpful in achieving better compliance.
Soleimani
Abbas
A
Department of Cardiology, Tehran Heart Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, P.O. Box: 14155-6559 Tehran, I.R. of Iran. soleimania@yahoo.com
Abbasi
Ali
A
Nejatian
Mostafa
M
Salarifar
Mojtaba
M
Darabian
Siroos
S
Karimi
Abbas Ali
AA
Davoodi
Saeed
S
Kassaian
Seyed Ebrahim
SE
Abbasi
Seyed Hesameddin
SH
Sheikhfathollahi
Mahmood
M
D000367:Age Factors; D002300:Cardiac Care Facilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010352:Patient Dropouts / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011044:Poland; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors