The Effects of Phase III Cardiac Rehabilitation on the Quality of Life of Patients Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Graft

Abstract

Background: Shortage of rehabilitation services as well as personal and financial problems prevents patients from participating in cardiac rehabilitation programs. Participation in these programs alleviates patients’ perceived inadequacy, improves their quality of life, and prolongs their survival. Thus, there is a clear need to educate cardiac patients and guide them toward patient-centered and home-based rehabilitation programs. Objectives: The present study was undertaken to examine the effect of phase III cardiac rehabilitation on the quality of life of patients who had undergone coronary artery bypass graft Methods: This quasi-experimental study was done on forty 35 to 75 year-old patients, who were in phase III cardiac rehabilitation after bypass surgery. Patients were selected purposively and were allocated to a control and an experimental group randomly, 20 patients in each group. The groups did not differ significantly regarding patients’ age, body mass index, and the duration of cardiac problems. A demographic questionnaire and the short form 36 quality of life questionnaire were used for gathering data both before and one month after the study intervention. A cardiac rehabilitation educational program was implemented for the patients in the experimental group with six 1.5-hour sessions in three subsequent weeks. Patients in the control group also received the same education in four sessions, which were held after the posttest. The data were entered in the SPSS (v. 15.0) software and were analyzed by running repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA), the paired- and the independent-sample t, the one-way ANOVA, and the Tukey’s post-hoc statistical tests. The level of significance was set at 0.05. Results: The pretest mean score of quality of life in the experimental group was 43.6 ± 13.2, which increased to 56.1 ± 9.4 after the intervention (P < 0.001). The pretest-posttest mean difference of the total quality of life scores in the experimental and the control groups was 12.5 and 4.5. This difference was statistically significant (P < 0.001). Moreover, the scores of all domains of quality of life in the experimental group increased significantly after the study (P < 0.001). Conclusions: The findings of this study showed that phase III (home-based) cardiac rehabilitation has significant effects on the quality of life of patients, who had undergo coronary artery bypass graft. Given the limited implementation of phase II rehabilitation programs in Iranian hospitals, implementing phase III rehabilitation programs can significantly affect patients’ quality of life after bypass graft surgery.