title: Digital Health Intervention as an Adjunct to Cardiac Rehabilitation Reduces Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Rehospitalizations.
abstract: Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) following myocardial infarction is vastly underused. As such, the aim of this study was to test a digital health intervention (DHI) as an adjunct to CR. Patients undergoing standard Mayo Clinic CR were recruited prior to CR (n = 25) or after 3 months CR (n = 17). Changes in risk factors and rehospitalizations plus emergency department (ED) visits were assessed after 3 months. Patients assigned to DHI during CR had significant reductions in weight (-4.0 ± 5.2 kg, P = .001), blood pressure (-10.8 ± 13.5 mmHg, P = .0009), and the group using DHI after 3 months of CR had significant reductions in weight (-2.5 ± 3.8 kg, P = .04) and systolic BP (-12.6 ± 12.4 mmHg, P = .001) compared to the control groups. Both DHI groups also displayed significant reductions in rehospitalizations/ED visits (-37.9 %, P = 0.01 and -28 %, P = .04, respectively). This study suggests that a guideline-driven DHI CR program can augment secondary prevention strategies during usual CR by improving risk factors for repeat events.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic and College of Medicine, 200 1st Street SW, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA.
authors.forename: R Jay
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Widmer
authors.forename: Thomas G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Allison
authors.forename: Lilach O
authors.initials: LO
authors.lastname: Lerman
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lerman
mesh_terms: D001794:Blood Pressure; D001835:Body Weight; D006801:Humans; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000209:etiology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D009862:Online Systems; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012307:Risk Factors