Cardiac rehabilitation is a programme of exercise and lifestyle sessions offered to cardiac patients after they’ve had a cardiac event, such as a heart attack, heart surgery or diagnosis of a heart condition.
It is designed to help patients get back on their feet – both physically and mentally – after a cardiac event or procedure, and can involve exercise sessions, dietary advice, education about their condition, and psychological support. It also helps patients learn about their medication and factors such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol that could increase the risk of future heart problems.
Currently, patients who have had a cardiac event are offered, in most parts of the UK, a ‘one size fits all’ rehabilitation package. Consequently, figures show that only 52% of people in the UK who are eligible for these services actually use them, and in many areas the figure is much lower. The NHS long-term plan is to increase uptake of support from 52% to 85% in the next 10 years.
The way that these services are currently offered might not appeal to everyone and may explain, in part, why uptake is currently at 52%. With an increase in uptake of services of just 5% (from 47%) in the last 10 years, it is apparent that the model needs to change.
It is estimated that by hitting this ambitious target of increasing uptake of services from 52% to 85% in the next 10 years, the new cardiac rehabilitation programme could save up to 19500 lives and prevent 49000 hospital admissions within the same period.
Now, researchers from Northumbria, Sheffield Hallam, the British Heart Foundation and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals have come together to understand which services patients would prefer to receive and how they would like to receive them.
Funded by the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Integrated Care System, the project will see the recruitment of 300 patients who are in hospital following a cardiac event, heart surgery or diagnosis of a new heart condition.
Using a sophisticated online questionnaire known as a ‘discrete choice experiment’, the team will seek to fully understand which cardiac rehabilitation services patients want to engage with and how. The questionnaire will be followed up with a number of interviews with patients.
The questionnaire is being designed by academics at Northumbria and Sheffield Hallam Universities, led by Dr Alasdair O’Doherty, Senior Lecturer in Exercise Physiology and Health at Northumbria. Dr Simon Nichols, Senior Research Fellow in Exercise Physiology, will be the principal investigator who will lead the patient recruitment with his team at Sheffield Hallam University.
