Background Fear of movement (kinesiophobia) after an acute cardiac hospitalization (ACH) is associated with reduced physical activity (PA) and non-adherence to cardiac rehabilitation (CR). Purpose To investigate which factors are related to kinesiophobia after an ACH, and to investigate the support needs of patients in relation to PA and the uptake of CR. Methods Patients were included 2–3 weeks after hospital discharge for ACH. The level of kinesiophobia was assessed with the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK-NL Heart). A score of > 28 points is defined as ‘high levels of kinesiophobia’ (HighKin) and ≤ 28 as ‘low levels of kinesiophobia’ (LowKin). Patients were invited to participate in a semi-structured interview with the fear avoidance model (FAM) as theoretical framework. Interviews continued until data-saturation was reached. All interviews were analyzed with an inductive content analysis. Results Data-saturation was reached after 16 participants (median age 65) were included in this study after an ACH. HighKin were diagnosed in seven patients. HighKin were related to: (1) disrupted healthcare process, (2) negative beliefs and attitudes concerning PA. LowKin were related to: (1) understanding the necessity of PA, (2) experiencing social support. Patients formulated ‘tailored information and support from a health care provider’ as most important need after hospital discharge. Conclusion This study adds to the knowledge of factors related to kinesiophobia and its influence on PA and the uptake of CR. These findings should be further validated in future studies and can be used to develop early interventions to prevent or treat kinesiophobia and stimulate the uptake of CR.

LAY ABSTRACTFear of movement (kinesiophobia) in common is patients with cardiac diseases. As a consequence, these patients have lower levels of adherence to cardiac rehabilitation. It would be useful to gain more insight into kinesiophobia in cardiac patients. In order to effectively screen for kinesiophobia and to evaluate treatment for these patients, an objective measurement tool would be useful. Secondly, in order to effectively treat patients, it would be useful to determine which subgroups of cardiac patients experience kinesiophobia. The aim of this study was to determine the reliability and validity of a questionnaire to measure kinesiophobia, and to determine the level of kinesiophobia in subgroups of patients. Objectives:To determine the psychometric properties of a questionnaire to assess fear of movement (kinesiophobia): the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK-NL Heart), and to investigate the prevalence of kinesiophobia in patients attending cardiac rehabilitation. Methods: A total of 152 patients were evaluated with the TSK-NL Heart during intake and 7 days later. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability and construct validity were assessed. For construct validity, the Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire (CAQ) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were used. The factor structure of the TSK-NL Heart was determined by a principal component analysis (PCA). Results: After removal of 4 items due to low internal consistency, the TSK-NL Heart showed substantial reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient; ICC: 0.80). A strong positive correlation was found between the TSK-NL Heart and the CAQ (r s : 0.61). A strong negative correlation was found between the TSK-NL Heart and the HADS (Anxiety) (r s -0.51). The PCA revealed a 3-factor structure as most suitable (fear of injury, avoidance of physical activity, perception of risk). High levels of kinesiophobia were found in 45.4% of patients. Conclusion: The 13-item TSK-NL Heart has good psychometric properties, and we recommend using this version to assess kinesiophobia, which is present in a substantial proportion of patients referred for cardiac rehabilitation.

The authors have unfortunately discovered that the originally published version of this article contains errors, due to the incorrect merging of two datasets. These errors lead to minor changes of the paper, but need to be corrected.In this corrigendum, we supply the corrected data in Table I and also updated abstract, results and discussion sections. These corrections do not alter the study's findings of significance or overall interpretation of the study results. The authors regret for any inconvenience caused.

Objectives: The primary objective was to determine the responsiveness of the Dutch version of the 13-item Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia for cardiac patients (TSK-NL Heart). The secondary objective was to assess changes in kinesiophobia during cardiac rehabilitation.Methods: Kinesiophobia was measured pre- and post-cardiac rehabilitation using the TSK-NL Heart questionnaire in 109 cardiac patients (61 years; 76% men). The effect size of kinesiophobia score changes was calculated for the full population. A measure that is responsive to change should produce higher effects sizes in patients in whom kinesiophobia improves. Therefore, effect sizes were also calculated for patients who did or did not improve on selected external measures. For this step, the Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire (CAQ) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were completed as external measures in a subsample of 58 patients.Results: The effect size of the TSK-NL Heart for the full study population was small (0.29). In line with the study hypothesis the effect size was higher (moderate) for patients with improved CAQ (0.52) and HADS scores (0.54). Prevalence of high kinesiophobia levels decreased from 40% pre-cardiac rehabilitation to 26% post-cardiac rehabilitation (p = 0.004).Conclusion: The TSK-NL Heart has moderate responsiveness and can be used to measure changes in kinesiophobia. Improvements in kinesiophobia were observed during cardiac rehabilitation. Nevertheless, high levels of kinesiophobia were still highly prevalent post-cardiac rehabilitation.