Benefits and effectiveness of using a wrist heart rate monitor as a telerehabilitation device in cardiac patients

Abstract

Background: Telerehabilitation in cardiology has the potential to become the alternative to regular outpatient cardiac rehabilitation. Our study focuses on the wrist heart rate monitor as a telerehabilitation device, defines detected limitations, and compares results between home-based and regular outpatient rehabilitation methods, related to physical fitness, quality of life, and training adherence. The study design was a randomized controlled trial. Methods: Eligible 56 cardiac rehabilitation patients were randomized into a 12-week regular outpatient training group (ROT) and interventional home-based telerehabilitation group (ITG). For both groups, the intensity of the training was prescribed to be performed at 70% to 80% of heart rate reserve for 60 minutes, 3 times a week. The ITG patients started their training with a wrist heart rate monitor in their home environment. These patients received feedback once a week, reflecting data uploaded on the internet application. The ROT patients performed their exercise under the direct supervision of a physical specialist in a regular outpatient clinic. Physical fitness and health-related quality of life were assessed at baseline and after 12 weeks. Training adherence in both groups was determined and compared. Results: Fifty-one patients comleted the intervention (91%); no serious adverse events were recorded. Physical fitness expressed as peak oxygen uptake showed significant improvement ( P < .001) in ROT group from 23.4 ± 3.3 to 25.9 ± 4.1 mL/kg/min and ( P < .01) in ITG group from 23.7 ± 4.1 to 26.5 ± 5.7 mL/kg/min without significant between-group differences after 12 weeks of intervention. The training adherence between groups was similar. Conclusion: Our study shows that telerehabilitation via wrist heart rate monitor could become an alternative kind of cardiac rehabilitation which deserves attention and further analyzing.

Cardiac Rehabilitation Based on the Walking Test and Telerehabilitation Improved Cardiorespiratory Fitness in People Diagnosed with Coronary Heart Disease during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The results of the 8-week effect of HBCT intervention created the expected significant improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness by almost 8%, which corresponds to studies where the usual effect of exercise was around 7-15% [30][31][32]. It is necessary to mention that cardiorespiratory fitness is one of the independent factors predicting cardiovascular mortality, morbidity, and rehospitalization [33].…”

Social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic can increase physical inactivity and the global burden of cardiovascular disease

“…These interventions may be highly relevant to restore preisolation physical activity levels and to counteract the negative effects of inactivity on the cardiovascular system. In this scenario, remotely supervised home-based interventions have been shown to significantly improve physical fitness in coronary artery disease and heart failure patients (2,3,40,42) and to be equally effective in center-based interventions for secondary prevention (2). This type of training has shown to be safe for stable low-tomoderate risk cardiac patients and hypertensive individuals (26,40,42,49).…”

Effect of home-based high-intensity interval training using telerehabilitation among coronary heart disease patients

“…The group size is based on an anticipated increase of cardiorespiratory fitness 2.8 mL/kg/min with a standard deviation of 4.3 mL/kg/min from the previous study. [ 16 ] Seventy-six participants will need to be included in the study to achieve 80% statistical power at 5% statistical significance. The drop-out rate in follow-up at 12 week and follow-up is taken into account, that is, 38 participants need to be randomized to the experimental and control arm of the study.…”

“…A recently completed study demonstrated an intervention using the HR monitor and internet as an effective and sufficient way of providing telerehabilitation in patients after CHD. [ 16 ] A 12-week home-based program showed that telerehabilitation leads to similar results in cardiopulmonary fitness as outpatient training. Although this study proved the feasibility and efficiency of telerehabilitation, further randomized control studies are needed in this field.…”