Psychosocial and cardiometabolic health of patients with differing body mass index completing cardiac rehabilitation

Abstract Background It remains unclear whether cardiac rehabilitation (CR) provides similar benefits to patients with varying levels of body mass index (BMI). We assessed the psychosocial and cardiometabolic health of patients with increased BMI who completed CR. Methods and Results The records of 582 patients who completed a three-month outpatient CR program were analyzed. Based on their BMI at baseline, patients were categorized as normal (18.5-24.9 kg/m 2 ); overweight (25.0-29.9 kg/m 2 ); obese (30.0-34.9 kg/m 2 ); or severely obese (≥35.0 kg/m 2 ). ANCOVA was used to compare health-related quality of life (i.e., Physical Component Summary [PCS] and Mental Component Summary [MCS] scores), anxiety, depression, and cardiometabolic health indicators between BMI categories following CR. At baseline, patients with severe obesity, when compared to those with normal BMI, had lower PCS scores (39.7±8.5 vs. 44.4±8.4, p Conclusions Poorer psychosocial and cardiometabolic health at baseline coupled with smaller improvements in the PCS score suggest that patients with obesity and severe obesity will benefit from enhanced care in the CR setting.