Michael Kennedy, from the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, and his research team examined the effect of participating in a comprehensive CR program on QOL, exercise tolerance and lipid profiles in women. They also studied the effects of aging on the same outcome measures.
Previous studies have shown an improvement in QOL but few older women have participated in these studies, despite the fact that older females with cardiovascular disease have markedly reduced exercise capacity and a higher disability rate compared to older males. Older females may benefit the most from a CR program but aren't participating in them as much. Reasons for physician's reluctance include the belief that women believe they are too fragile and do not want to exercise as well as a straightforward gender bias on the part of the doctor, said Kennedy.
"One of the most important findings is the women in the 70-plus category had no less of an improvement after cardiac rehab compared to the younger age groups, which shows it is never too late to see the benefits of exercise and lifestyle modification," said Kennedy.
The women in this study took part in an exercise program and were interviewed about such things as fatigue, health status, perceived fun, feelings of usefulness and worry over their heart condition. Such measures as physical well being, psychosocial factors, worry, nutrition and symptoms improved considerably, which means the program "improved how these women feel, which is very important," said Kennedy.
"The improved exercise capacity may result in an accompanying improvement in the ability to perform activities of daily living given that the women in this investigation, irrespective of age, felt less fatigued and perceived that they could do more work while performing their usual tasks," he said. "The end result is that research like ours may help getting the word out and start changing attitudes regarding the benefit of cardiac rehabilitation programs for women."
This research has just been published in the journal Current Controlled Trials in Cardiovascular Medicine.
The U of A in Edmonton, Alberta is one of Canada's premier teaching and research universities serving more than 33,000 students with 6,000 faculty and staff. It continues to lead the country with the most 3M Teaching Fellows, Canada's only national award recognizing teaching excellence.
Journal
Current Controlled Trials in Cardiovascular Medicine