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W. Machado Magalhães de Souza1, M. Carvalho Vieira1, C. Yunes Pereira1, M.L. de Lima Santiago Tomelin1, F. Izaquiel Rebello Siqueira Mendes1, S. Manoel Serra1
1Center for Cardiology and Exercise, Aloysio de Castro State Institute of Cardiology, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Background: The exercise-based cardiovascular rehabilitation (CR) program aims to promote improvements in functional capacity and quality of life in cardiac patients. However, the social isolation adopted by public authorities due to the pandemic of the new coronavirus (COVID-19), makes face-to-face CR unfeasible at this moment.
Purpose: Due to this unusual scenario, we decided to adopt the home-based cardiac rehabilitation (HBCR) model, in order to keep patients physically active during the isolation.
Methods: The HBCR program consisted of the prescription and orientation of physical exercises through videos produced by the CR team, which demonstrated the adequate execution of each movement, with accessible language and avoiding technical terms. The exercises were prescribed according to the recommendations of the current Brazilian CR Guidelines and included aerobic exercises, muscle strengthening and flexibility, at moderate intensity (i.e., intensity 3 on the Borg scale, from 0 to 10), performed two to three times a week, lasting approximately 20 minutes. Besides that, patients were asked to respond a questionnaire to assess the perception in relation to the strategy adopted during the period of social isolation.
Results: The follow-up period was 93 days. The monitoring adopted by CR team allowed to assess that of the 107 patients enrolled in the program by the time of interruption of face-to-face activities, 101 patients (94%) received the recommendations. Of these, 72 (71%) performed at least one session, with average of 20 sessions per patient. The questionnaire was answered by 80 of the 101 patients who received the recommendations (79%). Regarding the communication strategy with the CR team, 95% considered it good; 98% said they understood the information sent and 99% evaluated it positively the quality of the videos, audios and text messages.
Conclusion(s): Based on this experience, HBCR program was an effective tool for maintaining physical activity in cardiac patients during the period of social isolation.
Implications: HBCR can be another component to be adopted in traditional CR programs due to its benefits and advantages, even in the post pandemic period.
Funding, acknowledgements: This work was unfunded.
Keywords: cardiovascular rehabilitation, coronavirus, cardiovascular diseases
Topic: Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Did this work require ethics approval? No
Institution: N/A
Committee: N/A
Reason: Describes innovative ways in which established methods have been adapted to meet the changing needs of practice.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
