title: Cardiac patients show high interest in technology enabled cardiovascular rehabilitation.
abstract: Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) can slow or reverse the progression of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, uptake of community-based CR is very low. E-cardiology, e-health and technology solutions for physical activity uptake and monitoring have evolved rapidly and have potential in CVD management. However, it is unclear what the current technology usage is of CVD patients, and their needs and interests for technology enabled CR.
  
  
  
  A technology usage questionnaire was developed and completed by patients from a supervised ambulatory CR program and an adult congenital heart disease clinic and from two community-based CR programs. Results were described and related with age, gender and educational level by Spearman correlations.
  
  
  
  Of 310 patients, 298 patients (77 % male; mean age 61,7 ± 14,5 years) completed at least 25 questions of the survey and were included in the analysis (completion rate 96 %). Most (97 %) patients had a mobile phone and used the internet (91 %). Heart rate monitors were used by 35 % and 68 % reported to find heart rate monitoring important when exercising at home. Physical activity monitoring was reported by 12 % of the respondents. Respondents were interested in CR support through internet (77 %) and mobile phone (68 %). Many patients reported interest in game-based CR (67 %) and virtual rehabilitation (58 %). At least medium interest in technology enabled CR was reported by 75 % of the patients. Interest decreased with increasing age (r = -0.16; p = 0.005).
  
  
  
  CVD patients show interest for technology enabled home-based CR. Our results could guide the design of a technology-based, virtual CR intervention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000, Leuven, Belgium. roselien.buys@kuleuven.be.|Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000, Leuven, Belgium. roselien.buys@kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: Roselien
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8379-3971
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Buys
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Jomme
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Claes
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Human Performance, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland.|Insight Centre for Data Analytics, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland.
authors.forename: Deirdre
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Walsh
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Nils
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cornelis
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Human Performance, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland.|Insight Centre for Data Analytics, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland.
authors.forename: Kieran
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Moran
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000, Leuven, Belgium.|Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University Hospital Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Budts
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Human Performance, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland.|Insight Centre for Data Analytics, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Woods
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Véronique A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Cornelissen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000072038:Cardiac Rehabilitation / Q000523:psychology*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000523:psychology*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000523:psychology*; D013813:Therapy, Computer-Assisted; D014584:User-Computer Interface
keywords: Cardiac rehabilitation; Exercise; Lifestyle risk reduction; Physical activity; Technology