Self-reported behavioural and medical changes in women after their first myocardial infarction: a 4-year comparison between participation and non-participation in a cardiac rehabilitation programme

Women's Health after a First Myocardial Infarction: A Comprehensive Perspective on Recovery Over a 4-Year Period

“…The cardiac rehabilitation programs available today comprise counseling and information regarding diet and stress management as well as exercise and smoking cessation groups [17]. This has brought about a change of lifestyle, which is consistent with previous reports of rehabilitation programs with long-term follow ups [7]. The majority of smokers who had received information and counseling regarding smoking during their hospitalization for MI gave up smoking within the following 12-month period [34].…”

“…In the present study, the women reported that their complaints had been taken seriously by the healthcare professionals and that the professionals had increased their support over the 4-year period (Table 3). This could be the result of repeated information and education provided to the healthcare professionals, making them aware of the fact that also women can be afflicted with MI [7,11]. The women initially received a substantial amount of help and support from their family and friends but this help gradually decreased over the 4-year period.…”

“…Some studies have shown that women have a poorer prognosis after MI than men [5,6]. Winberg and Fridlund [7] found that, irrespective of participation or non-participation in a cardiac rehabilitation program, several women had stopped smoking, started exercising and were more diet conscious 4 years after MI. The rehabilitation-related benefit was a higher back-to-work rate but, on the whole, work attendance was low compared to men.…”

Geographic issues in cardiac rehabilitation utilization: A narrative review

“…Other than distance/travel time and rurality status, the following barriers were often self-reported: heavy traffic (Stokes 2008), parking problems, inconvenient program locations (Grace et al 2002), cost of traveling, not having a driver's license or inability to drive (Dunlay et al 2009, Winberg 2002, Jones et al 2007, Dalal, Evans 2003, Wingham et al 2006, and inclement weather leading to hazardous or congested traffic conditions (Blanchard et al 2003, Fleury et al 2004). Indeed, for rural patients, factors other than proximity to a program may influence attendance, such as the quality of roads and harsh weather in particular for northern-residing outpatients (Curnier, Savage & Ades 2005, Pell, Morrison 1998).…”

High frequency of anxiety and angina pectoris in depressed women with coronary heart disease

“…The reason for no reduction in cardiovascular death rates in women could be the limited number and size of existing studies. There are also a limited number of studies of women's outcome post-CR that have been positive (Oldridge, LaSalle et al 1980;Winberg and Fridlund 2002;Grace, Grewal et al 2008;Sanderson, Shewchuk et al 2010). Unfortunately, this literature suffers from low sample sizes, and lack of randomization and control groups.…”