Physical activity profile in heart failure patients from a Brazilian tertiary cardiology hospital.
BACKGROUND
Physical activity (PA) has proven benefits in the primary prevention of heart diseases such as heart failure (HF). Although it is well known, HF PA habits and physicians' advice have been poorly described. The aim of this study was to investigate if physicians were advising HF patients to exercise and to quantify patients' exercise profiles in a complex cardiology hospital.


METHODS
All 131 HF patients (80 male, average age 53 +/- 10 years, NYHA class I-V, left ventricular ejection fraction 35 +/- 11%, 35 ischemic, 35 idiopatic, 32 hypertensive and 29 with Chagas disease) went to the hospital for a HF routine check-up. On this occasion, after seeing the physician , we asked the patients if the physician had advised them about PA. Then, we asked them to fill in the international physical activity questionnaire (IPQA) Short Form to classify their PA level.


RESULTS
Our data showed a significant difference between patients who had received any kind of PA advice from physicians (36%) and those who had not (64%, p<0.0001). Using the IPAQ criteria, of the 36% of patients who had received advice, 12.4% were classified as low and 23.6% as moderate. Of the 64% of patients who did not receive advice, 26.8% were classified as low and 37.2% as moderate. Etiology (except Chagas), functional class, ejection fraction, sex and age did not influence the PA profile.


CONCLUSIONS
Physicians at a tertiary cardiology hospital were not giving patients satisfactory advice as to PA. Our data supports the need to strengthen exercise encouragement by physicians and for complementary studies on this area.
Guimarães
Guilherme Veiga
GV
Unidade Clínica de Insuficiencia Cardíaca e Transplante do Instituto do Coração do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da USP (InCor HC-FMUSP), Brazil.
Carvalho
Vitor Oliveira
VO
Torlai
Vanessa
V
Bocchi
Edimar Alcides
EA
D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil; D016507:Cardiology Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013318:Stroke Volume; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left