Outpatient cardiac rehabilitation: Patient perceived benefits and reasons for non-attendance

Abstract Objective To determine patients' perceptions of the benefits of participating in outpatient cardiac rehabilitation and the reasons why some decline to take part. Method Data collected included patients' responses to the self-administrated ‘Outpatient Cardiac Rehabilitation Program Evaluation' form, after attending a cardiac rehabilitation program. The evaluation involved analysis of 9 binary and open ended questions. A retrospective study was completed on data collected from January 2010 to December 2015 (6 years) and included 643 adult cases comprising 500 men and 143 women. A between subject t -Test was used to compare patient means before and after attendance of perceived changes to their lifestyle, and overall sense of physical and emotional well-being. Fishers Exact Test was used to compare attendance percentages, gender distribution, and primary diagnosis. Results Two hundred and seventy nine (43.4%) of the 643 invited patients participated in the cardiac rehabilitation program, while 364 (56.6%) declined, with this result being significantly lower (p  Conclusion Considering the reported benefits of attending cardiac rehabilitation, the number of people who decline to attend has important implications for their health and related health system costs related to ongoing disease.