Influence of Discontinuation of Cardiac Rehabilitation in Elderly Outpatients Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has restricted people’s activities and necessitated the discontinuation of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs for outpatients. In our hospital, CR for outpatients had to be discontinued for 3 months. We investigated the influence of this discontinuation of CR on physical activity, body composition, and dietary intake in cardiovascular outpatients. Method: Seventy-eight outpatients who restarted CR were investigated. We measured body composition, balance test, stage of locomotive syndrome, and food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) results at restart and 3 months later. We also investigated the results of examination that were obtained before discontinuation. Results: With regard to baseline characteristics, the percentage of male was 62.7% (n = 49), and average age and body mass index were 74.1 ± 8.5 years and 24.9 ± 7.0 kg/m2, respectively. Stage of locomotive syndrome and the results of FFQ did not change significantly. The one-leg standing time with eyes open test significantly worsened at restart (p < 0.001) and significantly improved 3 months later (p = 0.007). With regard to body composition, all limb muscle masses were decreased at restart and decreased even further 3 months later. Conclusions: Discontinuation of CR influenced standing balance and limb muscle mass. While the restart of CR may improve a patient’s balance, more time is required for additional daily physical activities. The recent pandemic-related interruption of CR should inspire the development of alternatives that could ensure the continuity of CR in a future crisis.

A study of physically active versus inactive persons living with congestive heart failure during the covid-19 pandemic

“…Groupbased outpatient CR programs were suspended, as they are primarily hosted in hospitals, community centers and public gyms and were considered "non-essential" healthcare services. [29,30] While these restrictions were necessary to curb the spread of this virus, they greatly impacted the level of PA undertaken by healthy individuals as well as individuals with chronic disease. Ammar et al (2020) examined the impact of the covid-19 induced home confinement utilizing an online survey which included the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ).…”