Poor use of cardiac rehabilitation among older adults: a self-regulatory model for tailored interventions.
BACKGROUND
A greater number of older adults now live with coronary heart disease (CHD). This poses a significant public health problem, because older adults are at high risk for CHD-related mortality and morbidity. Overwhelming data support the benefits of cardiac rehabilitation for secondary prevention, yet only a small portion of eligible older adults receive it.


RESULTS
Whereas many studies examined factors that affect the use of cardiac rehabilitation among older adults, few interventions aimed to improve their cardiac rehabilitation participation rates. A substantial body of evidence indicates that an individual's illness perceptions play a pivotal role in health behavior, and may be a promising target for intervention. Drawing from the theoretic and empiric findings of others, a self-regulatory model is proposed that explicates how CHD perceptions of older adults may influence participation in cardiac rehabilitation.


CONCLUSIONS
The model may provide a useful guide for the development of effective interventions tailored to older adults.
Keib
Carrie N
CN
Department of Nursing, Cedarville University, Cedarville, Ohio 45314, USA. ckeib@cedarville.edu
Reynolds
Nancy R
NR
Ahijevych
Karen L
KL
D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging; D000072038:Cardiac Rehabilitation; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000451:nursing; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010465:Perception; D015995:Prevalence; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology