Preliminary Effects of a Structured Educational Program in Cardiac Patients at Different Stages of Enrollment in Cardiovascular Rehabilitation

This quasi-experimental study investigated the preliminary effects of a structured education intervention in a pooled sample of cardiovascular rehabilitation (CR) patients in Brazil. Recently enrolled (RE) and long-term enrolled (LTE) patients attended 12 weekly education sessions in addition to three weekly exercise sessions. Patients completed surveys assessing disease-related knowledge, physical activity, food intake, self-efficacy, and health literacy. Functional capacity was assessed by the 6-minutes walking test. All outcomes were assessed at pre-,post-CR, and 6-months follow-up. Bonferroni correction was applied. In total, 69 (69.7%) patients completed all three assessments. There were significant improvements in knowledge pre-to post-test in both subgroups (p < 0.001), and in functional capacity (p ≤ 0.001) and food intake (p ≤ 0.001) pre-to post-test in the RE subgroup. Post-test knowledge was correlated to physical activity, functional capacity and health literacy. This preliminary study suggests the importance of structured education for CR patients. A larger study using a randomized controlled design is needed to determine efficacy.