Family Practice Advance Access published online on July 13, 2007
Family Practice, doi:10.1093/fampra/cmm021
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‘DNA’ may not mean ‘did not participate’: a qualitative study of reasons for non-adherence at home- and centre-based cardiac rehabilitation
a Department of Primary Care and General Practice
b Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
c Wessex Institute of Health Research & Development, University of Southampton, SO16 7PX, UK
d University Department of Medicine and Department of Cardiology, City Hospital, Birmingham B18 7QH, UK
Correspondence to: Sheila Greenfield, Department of Primary Care and General Practice, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK; Email: s.m.greenfield{at}bham.ac.uk
Received 2 November 2006; Revised 12 March 2007; Accepted 25 April 2007.
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Abstract |
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Background. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) has been shown to improve prognosis and function following an acute myocardial infarction or revascularization. However, participation in CR programmes is low and adherence is poor.
Objective. To explore patients' reasons for non-participation in or non-adherence to a home- or hospital-based CR programme.
Methods. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 49 patients participating in the Birmingham Rehabilitation Uptake Maximisation Study of home-based compared with hospital-based CR trial who had not completed their CR programme. Participants included 16 women, 11 aged 70 years or over with 15 from ethnic minority groups.
Results. Patients gave a wide range of reasons for not completing their rehabilitation programme. Many patients had other health problems, such as arthritis, and continuing cardiac problems which prevented them from exercising as much as expected. The majority of non-adherers found some aspects of their CR programme helpful and had made lifestyle changes. Lack of motivation to exercise was the main reason for patients not adhering to the home programme, particularly in the women. Domestic duties in women and ill health in ethnic minority patients were also common reasons for non-adherence.
Conclusions. Reasons for non-participation/non-adherence were generally multifactorial and individualistic. Many patients who had not attended or not adhered to their CR programme had participated in rehabilitative activities in other ways. Social characteristics, individual patient needs and preferences and the location of CR programmes need to be taken into account in programme design to maximize participation.
Keywords. Cardiology, qualitative research, rehabilitation.
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Introduction |
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The benefits of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) for patients following a myocardial infarction (MI) or revascularization have been well documented.1 The content of CR programmes is variable but generally includes exercise, education and relaxation, and CR is usually offered in a hospital setting but more recently via home programmes.2 The National Service Framework for coronary heart disease (CHD) recommends that all patients admitted to hospital in England with CHD should be invited to attend a CR programme following discharge.3 Nevertheless, the provision of outpatient CR in the UK is low and uptake is poor.2
Participation in hospital-based CR programmes is reported to be low in many countries, particularly for women, the elderly and ethnic minorities2. Many studies have identified factors related to non-participation and non-adherence and have found that combinations of variables affect participation and adherence.4,5 Most of these studies are quantitative and provide limited insight on how these factors affect individual patients' behaviour and what developments in service provision would lead to improved participation in CR programmes. The differences in health care systems between countries and the wide range of CR programmes make it difficult to generalize the findings.
Qualitative studies can give greater understanding of how patients understand their illness and recovery and view participation in a rehabilitation programme. Several recent studies in the UK have begun to explore these issues 6–9 but only a few have included non-adherence;10,11 none so far have explored non-adherence to a home-based programme; and few have investigated attendance and adherence by women, the elderly and ethnic minority groups.11,12 Patients' attitudes and preferences for rehabilitation need to be explored further if attendance and adherence are to be improved.
The Birmingham Rehabilitation Uptake Maximisation Study (BRUM study) is a randomized controlled trial of home- versus hospital-based CR after MI or revascularization.13 This qualitative study of patients in the BRUM trial explored their views and experiences of CR and their reasons for non-participation in or non-adherence to their CR programme. We particularly sought reasons for non-participation from women, elderly patients and people from ethnic minority groups and about CR provided in both home-based and centre-based settings.
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Methods |
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CR programmes
The protocol and study procedures for the BRUM trial have previously been published.13 In brief, 525 patients were recruited to the BRUM trial following an MI or revascularization procedure (percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty or coronary artery bypass grafting) and were then randomized to an invitation to a home- or centre-based (predominantly hospital) CR programme.13
Each of the four hospitals in the BRUM trial ran a slightly different centre-based CR programme, based on circuit training, depending on the staff and the facilities available at the hospital. In three of the hospitals, patients exercised as a group and the exercise, education and relaxation components were combined in each session; in the other hospital, patients exercised individually and exercise and education components took place in separate sessions. For the home CR programme, patients were given a copy of the Heart Manual14 and its relaxation and information tapes and received home visits and telephone follow-up for 12 weeks from the study nurses. The Heart Manual has a 6-week programme of exercises combined with walking.
Recruitment for interviews
Participants were recruited from patients taking part in the BRUM trial. The trial nurses provided the names of patients who had not adhered to a programme. For the hospital programmes, data on the number of sessions attended by each patient were also used to identify additional patients, although these data were not available for all patients at the time of the interviews. For home programme patients, recruitment was based on the perception by the nurses of whether a patient had made an adequate attempt at following the recommendations in the Heart Manual for exercise and other lifestyle changes. Sampling was purposive15 and patients were invited for interview until at least 10 had been interviewed from each of the categories: female, elderly (aged 70 or over), ethnic minority group and middle-aged males.
Patients were contacted by telephone and asked if they were willing to be interviewed about their CR programme. Of the 131 trial patients who did not attend/adhere to their programme, 73 (56%) were approached: of these, 49 patients agreed to be interviewed, 1 had died, 16 could not be contacted and 7 refused. Interviews took place 3–20 months (mean 10 months) after randomization into the trial. Of the 49 patients, 21 (43%) had been in the home arm and 28 (57%) in the hospital arm.
Interviews
The interview schedule was developed to include issues emerging from previous studies in the literature and from an earlier study in the same locality of ethnic minority patients.11 The semi-structured interviews covered topics related to the patients' cardiac event including expectations and experience of their rehabilitation programme and lifestyle changes.
All 49 interviews were conducted in the patient's home by one interviewer (MJ) and patients gave signed informed consent. The patient's partner was present in 14 interviews and the patient's daughter in 2 interviews and they also contributed to the interviews. The interviews usually lasted about 40–45 minutes and were tape recorded and transcribed.
The transcripts were analysed using the technique of charting.16 Transcripts were read independently by three of the authors (MJ, KJ and SG) and the main themes and subthemes were identified and agreed. The reasons for non-adherence were grouped into categories and repeated reading of the transcripts and field notes also enabled the identification of a crucial or ‘critical’ reason among those patients who had given more than one reason. The process of determining the critical factor is shown in the following example. Patient 1 (home programme), aged 79 and married, was caring for her husband who had had several strokes and heart attacks. She was unable to go out walking regularly as she was unwilling to leave him on his own for long. She was getting up several times a night to attend to him and during the day she was doing domestic chores and occasional gardening and charity work. She also had arthritis in her feet so was unable to walk far. It was clear that her caring responsibilities were the main reason for non-adherence but she was active in other ways. The reasons for non-adherence were compared by home and hospital; cardiac event; and by age, gender and ethnicity.
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Results |
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Patient characteristics are summarized in Table 1. Patients in the ethnic minority groups were younger than in the White British group (mean age 59 versus 66) and the male and female patients were a similar age (63.2 versus 62.6). Five patients who had been randomized to the home programme but subsequently changed to the hospital programme were classified as home participants.
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Reasons for non-adherence
Patients' reasons for not attending or not completing their CR programme were varied and were grouped into four main categories. Many patients were undertaking alternative exercise programmes or activities, some had other health problems which interfered with exercise, others had personal reasons making participation in CR difficult or undesirable and there were factors associated with the individual programmes. These are addressed in more detail below. Most patients gave several reasons for not completing their programme with one factor as key (Tables 2 and 3).
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Alternative exercise and activities. Despite non-adherence to their CR programme, many patients were continuing to exercise in some way, especially walking (Box 1a). Sixteen patients said that they had increased the amount of walking they did. Although it was not possible to assess the pace or distance objectively, this ranged from brisk regular walks of several miles to walking on the level around shops for a patient with emphysema. Patients also talked about housework, decorating and gardening as their exercise; they accepted that it was important to exercise and these activities fitted into their lifestyle. Patients also recognized that the exercise they were doing was not necessarily as vigorous as that recommended but felt that what they were doing was appropriate for them.
| BOX 1 Reasons for non-adherence (a) Alternative exercise and other activities "I work in the morning, I do what needs to be done in the morning and I have a rest in the afternoon. And then I get a meal at night, and I don't work after tea. I am afraid I don't exercise as much as I should, as you probably think I should. ... I wash every day, I iron every day, I cook every day, and that's about it. ... first thing in the morning isn't a good thing because I have to help [husband] to do a lot of things, and by night time I'm too tired. I'm too tired to do exercises. ... I suppose doing ordinary jobs is not the same, doing gardening is not the same, but I truthfully couldn't walk very far. I am not as steady on my feet as I ought to be, which is arthritis, but I don't sit down all day." (P1, female, age 79, carer, home programme) "I do a lot of moving about. Like I said I've not taken to my chair all the time. And that thing [TV], we only come in about 4 o'clock and switch that on. But normally we just keep pottering about." (P11, male, 77, hospital) "... we've been too busy doing the decorating and the garden. I haven't had the chance to go out walking. But as I say I'm not still." (P4, male, 72, home crossover) "Well as I say I play golf [twice a week] and I do a lot of walking, I consider that exercise." (P47, male, 70, home) "They were very nice down at [hospital], but it was just too far and I mean I was travelling and then I had to wait and all I was doing was just walking up and down and going on a bike with a thing on my wrist, which I was quite pleased at first because it was telling me that my heart was strong, ... so it did stop me worrying. But then afterwards I thought well I could go down the gym closer to home and sort of do more exercise ... It just wasn't enough for me. ... down the gym, this other lady I go with ... we can stop on the apparatus longer ... we do an hour. ... we were going four times [a week] but this other lady said she's getting a bit tired so we might drop one." (P27, female, age 65, hospital programme) "When I first started to do them, I always used to do some in the morning and the afternoon like it said and I would have a particular time that I would do it, and the relaxation I would do it as well. But that gradually as, I got more, doing the things I normally do, I mean, this was when I was at home more, and I hadn't started to go out. Now, once I started walking to the shops, and gardening and things like that, then, I sort of, I was doing that anyway so I didn't bother so much about the exercises. ... I'd gone back to that [weekly ‘exercise to music’ class] fairly soon. I enjoy that." (P44, female, age 71, home programme) (b) Other health problems "I was still walking. Yes, I filled it in [Heart manual] for six weeks I think, and I still carried on ... When I first started doing the exercises I started getting a pain in my back. I haven't had pain like that for years ... I have had X-rays ... so when the nurse came I told her I did not want to do any more. I have not done them since." (P6, male, 65, home) "I did the first exercise, where you do two minutes and then you walk round the room, so I did that. ... When I got up to do the third one ... the nurse came and stopped me, told me to sit down and said forget about it because I was getting out of breath that quick. So I was going to do more damage with my breathing than I was going to gain by doing the exercises. So they just said do as much walking as you possibly can. So that's what we do. ... Most of the time we go walking round shops and I can walk round nice and steady and that, and there's something to occupy you while you're doing it. I seem to be able to walk a lot longer." (P5, male, 62, hospital, emphysema) "Done those, to start off with, until I found out I was buggered up after doing them so 'I ain't doing this no more'. I didn't even feel I could go out and do any shopping or whatever. I thought, stuff that, I ain't doing that no more. So I didn't carry on with it. ... I did it for about three weeks." (P46, male, 68, home, diabetes, kidney disease) (c) Personal "I had a very stressful day, which is why I had a heart attack. Can't believe I had a heart attack in all honesty. If people say, ‘Did you?’, I go ‘No, not really. I had a stress attack’. ... I think that something like that [Heart Manual] is good at the time. Not so much for me, because I'm still in denial. ... everything in it I found really easy. But I would presume that for someone who had a proper heart attack, it gave them a bit more encouragement to go that bit further ...." (P3, female, 52, home) "I couldn't really be away too often, too long, so as I said I am doing my walking, which is pretty good exercise I believe, I know its not so strenuous as running etc, but I didn't actually take part in the exercise routine. ... I've got no objection to doing it, but I think at my age as well, if there was a regular exercise I felt that would be good enough, something I hadn't done for years, i.e. walking." (P8, male, 70, carer, hospital) "I feel a hundred times better now, than what I did before I had it [MI]." (P40, female, 73, hospital) "I just couldn't get into it. ... But, when they stopped coming, I stopped doing it ... Call me lazy, if you like. ... I did for a bit, put it that way, and I felt all right, so I didn't bother after." (P42, male, 76, home) (d) Programme related "... but there is still nothing coming from hospital. ... Long time ago I been twice there [research assessment] and they giving me paper for so many time, is timetable, but nothing coming from hospital. ... But last time gave me paper for timetable to evening, morning or afternoon what convenient time. ... I think ... we send you appointment, we let you know, but nothing coming." (P15, male, 61, Indian Muslim, hospital) "... to get to the hospital, we have to get on two buses, and the one bus route, you could be out there in the rain for an hour, waiting, I didn't fancy doing that ... I definitely didn't want to go to the hospital and do it. Because as I say, not having a car ... And winter was coming on." (P40, female, 73, hospital) "... they wanted me to go up to [hospital] of a night time and I said ‘I'm sorry, I'm not being awkward, I don't go out of a night time’." (P11, male, 77, hospital, drives own car) "I missed quite a few sessions simply because I couldn't park. I would drive over there at 9 o'clock in the morning and the car park would be full, and after 10 trips around I'd just go home again. That was the major problem, the actual programme itself there was no problems and it was good." (P17, male, 47, hospital) "... but they were all old. I went about six times and then I gave up because, as I say, they were all old people and they could all sit and relate to each other, but I mean there was nobody there my age. ... Because they were older I resented the fact that I was there. I felt as though I shouldn't be there. So I stopped going. ... they had had their life, I don't feel as though I've had mine." (P20, female, 53, hospital) "...the first time I went down there I couldn't believe it. To me it was a shambles, it was an utter shambles. In my opinion there was too many people there. ... The second time I went down there, I stood it for the session and then I told them I wasn't going down there again. I just could not ... it just wasn't for me." (P34, male, 60, hospital) "But on this home thing I was doing on my own and was bored. You know, it was boring, although I was doing certain ... going a bit further every day, you know, to it. I think, I can't really give it a fair trial because of me having, as I say, I've been going through a lot of stress. ... But it was boring on your own, it's terribly boring. I know it was to help me to get better and it was up to me to do these things." (P7, female, 65, home crossover, completed hospital programme) "Well I tried it [home CR] didn't I? And [CR nurse] came and saw me and I told her then ... there's just no motivation. There's no enjoyment in it, you go into the kitchen and what it says in the book and oh I go back and put the television on. ... it's great [hospital CR]. You're with some of the other fellows and you're having a laugh and a joke ... and then before you know it you've done all your exercises ... you don't realise you're doing them and that's what I like about it." (P4, male, 73, home crossover, previous hospital CR experience)
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Six patients had joined a gym or were taking part in an alternative exercise class. Two of these patients reported how taking part in CR, even for a limited period, had given them the confidence to return to their previous daily activities and attend an exercise class.
Other health problems. Nearly half (22) of the patients reported health problems which affected their ability to do an exercise programme and for 16 it was the key factor (Box 1b). Patients aged over 70 were less likely to report other health problems. The health of several patients had deteriorated since their entry into the trial and they had become unable to exercise.
For many patients their other health problems were a greater barrier to exercising than their heart condition, particularly emphysema, arthritis and back pain. Some patients found specific exercises or walking difficult but they remained active in other ways. Patients understood that it was important to exercise and tried to adapt the advice they were given to their individual circumstances.
Personal reasons. These reasons were varied (Box 1c). Two people were unable to attend CR due to being a carer and unable to leave their partner for the extended periods required to attend the hospital programme. A patient allocated to the home programme who was a carer also said she would not have attended a hospital programme because of this role. A return to work made it difficult for six patients to undertake CR, but it was the main reason for non-adherence in only one patient. However, despite not doing formal CR, four of these patients had joined a gym or exercise class and two were doing substantial amounts of exercise. Other patients had made a good recovery from their cardiac event and did not see the need or potential benefits from CR and were doing other activities. Two patients appeared unwilling to participate in their CR programme at all; however, one had gradually increased the distance he walked and was playing golf twice a week so had followed some of the recommendations in the Heart Manual.
Programme-related reasons. Lack of motivation was a factor in non-adherence in 10 of the 21 home patients and for 8 it was the major factor (Box 1d). Five patients changed to the hospital programme and three completed it successfully. The other two patients also had other health problems. Several patients on the hospital programme commented that, in retrospect, they realized they would not have been motivated to exercise if they had been on the home programme.
Three patients (out of 28) said they had not been invited to the hospital sessions and were still waiting to be called. It appeared there had been some misunderstanding as the patients had been given the information about session times but did not think they had been given an appointment with a specific start date. These patients still expressed a willingness to do the rehabilitation programme.
Access to the hospital programmes was an issue for some patients travelling both by car or public transport. Heavy traffic, lack of parking and irregular bus services were among the difficulties raised. A patient who was offered an evening session refused this as he was unwilling to go out in the evening. However, for another patient, only the evening sessions were suitable because her daughters were at work during the day and she relied on them for transport.
Three patients, aged between 52 and 60 years, on the hospital programme thought that the other patients attending the exercise session were ‘all old people’ and did not feel comfortable with this. Two patients thought it was overcrowded at one of the hospitals and did not enjoy it.
Three patients who had hoped to receive the home programme were randomized to the hospital programme and were unwilling to attend any sessions, two because they were carers and one because of the distance by bus, but all followed advice to increase their walking and had made changes to their diet.
Differences in reasons for non-adherence by age, gender, ethnic group and cardiac event. We found only limited trends in reasons for non-adherence by age, gender or ethnic group. On the home programme, seven of the 10 women cited lack of motivation compared to three out of 11 men, whereas six men cited poor health as the key reason compared to one woman. More patients in the White British group gave personal reasons than in the other ethnic groups, but fewer gave health reasons. The patients in the White Irish group were younger (mean age 56.8) and four out five cited health problems. There were no differences in reasons for non-adherence by cardiac event (MI or revascularization).
Previous CR experience. Eight patients had previously attended CR (all hospital programmes) following an earlier cardiac event. Of these patients, two had stopped on this occasion due to poor health; three found the location or timing inconvenient and had arranged alternative exercise at a leisure centre or at home; there had been confusion about the invitation of one patient to the hospital programme; one was a carer and unable to get away, but was walking daily; and one was not motivated and changed from the home to hospital programme which he completed.
Lifestyle changes
All the patients were aware of the changes to their lifestyle that were recommended to improve their health and lower their risk of further heart disease, even if the motivation to make substantial changes was sometimes lacking (Box 2). Patients who had had a previous cardiac event, or whose partner had health problems, had often already made changes to their lifestyle. Many patients said they had made changes particularly around smoking and diet. The patient's partner or family often had an important role in supporting these changes which could also apply to others in the family. One Asian patient commented that when he discussed the changes in his diet with friends, they were all making the same changes and the message was being reinforced in the community.
| BOX 2 Lifestyle changes "I didn't know it was going to cause me that. So I just keep on eating. Now I know what fried things do for you. Now I don't have it anymore now—I just stopped everything." (P30, female, 50, Indian Hindu, home) "The wife helped me as best she could ... And she cut out cooking fats and all that, the greasy stuff ... She read it [Heart Manual] and she said, ‘now you've got to stop with these fry ups in the morning, bacon, egg and sausage and all this’." (P42, male, 75, home) "... he used to have a lot more fried food before, and now they have cut it out and they are doing things like using olive oil which they've been told is better to cook in than vegetable oil or butter ...." (Daughter of P15, male, 60, Indian Muslim, hospital) "... but I know that I asking, when I sit there with the others, a few people like that, and I ask what you eat and this and that, the same one, everyone says ‘we do like that’, same thing." (P15, male, 60, Indian, Muslim, hospital) "We used to eat butter, but we stopped everything. ... Yes, everybody in the family using sunflower. And Flora for the margarine to spread on the bread." (P9, male, 56, Pakistani Muslim, hospital) "I've got to admit that I haven't kept up to my diet sheet that's in the package there, the way I should do. I still eat a lot of salads, tuna, salmon and baked potatoes. But we do go out twice a week, Tuesdays and Saturdays, and have a decent meal. I don't have any fried stuff." (P20, male, 69, carer, hospital) "I am more active because now I know I have to do the exercise, before that if something is good on the telly I would prefer doing that rather than walking. But now I know I have to walk so I am taking that seriously." (P35, male, 55, Indian Hindu, home crossover) "I used to stop smoking. I could stop smoking for five years and then start again. ... the heart attack helped me to make up my mind and that was it so I haven't had a cigarette since. I did try to have a cigarette and it made me that bad and I thought forget it." (P33, female, 61, home) "I smoked and sat at a desk all day, and didn't do any exercise, ate whatever I wanted because I didn't put weight on, so it didn't bother me with what I was eating. So no, I was not a healthy person. ... [now] I watch what I eat, probably eat it anyway but at least I think about it. I do take more exercise and walk a lot. I still have the occasional cigarette, I must admit, but I have pretty well packed up." (P17, male, 47, hospital)
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Benefits of CR
Despite being unable or unwilling to exercise as much as expected for the BRUM trial, many patients were positive about CR and felt they had benefited from their programme (Box 3).
| BOX 3 Benefits of CR "If they had not got me out and if I sat in on my own at home I would be probably sitting there now. ... It pushed you outside, didn't it, to start getting about." (P6, male, 65, home) "My husband's had a heart attack actually, at 40 he had one, but what his recovery was, mine was completely different and better because I had after care and my husband didn't. ... I hope to improve by me doing it really, not by itself. I mean I do watch now everything, I watch what I eat as I say, I go to ‘keep fit’ now." (P49, female, 53, home) "Yes, I filled all that in [Heart Manual]. ... I'm keeping that, there's a lot of information in there. If I get a bit worried or anything I can always refer to that." (P6, male, 65, home) "... but the information in the manual it was unbelievable. I've learned things from that that I've never known. Even though I'd had previous heart attacks." (P45, male, 56, home) "I tell you what I thought was good, and that is because I do know it was stress, and that was the stress tapes. And I used to listen to them all the time and decided that if things got where I got really panicky about them, which I have done, ... I have lain down and just listened to them, and I think I have slightly learnt them off the top of my head. So if I got stressed somewhere else I could sit down and do them. ... And I thought them tapes were brilliant." (P3, female, 52, home) "I liked the friendship of the group, that's part of it I think, I'm a mixer I don't mind that at all. You can see if he's doing better than you and that's what you want isn't it?" (P13, male, 58, hospital) "Then there was more telling how the medicines.... This was quite good. I liked it. ... Yes, it was very, very helpful. Which medicine they give you, and what they do. And you can't take this medicine with that, its worse for you or harming you." (P9, male, 56, Pakistani, hospital)
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Home patients thought the Heart Manual was good and many said they had learnt new things about their medication and diet and it had improved their understanding of how the heart works. Even patients who were not motivated to do the exercises found the manual helpful. A majority of patients said the tapes were good and many had used the relaxation tape regularly, especially early in their recovery, and several continued to use it.
Most hospital patients enjoyed the atmosphere of the hospital programmes and found it friendly and fun. They enjoyed the company and gained motivation working in a group. Patients who attended the education sessions found the information on medication particularly helpful.
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Discussion |
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The overall aims of CR are to facilitate patients' recovery, improve their quality of life and reduce their risk of further cardiac events.3 In the present qualitative study, we observe that many people who do not adhere to a formal programme of CR do undertake their own modified programme of exercise and lifestyle changes adapted from information provided by the CR nurses. Patients' reasons for not adhering to their CR programme were generally multifactorial—and very individualized—and spanned all the categories with no one overall reason emerging across all patients as a major factor. Whilst we found different reasons for non-adherence in CR between patients allocated to the home- and hospital-based programmes, there were only minor trends by ethnicity, gender, cardiac event or age of the participants.
One limitation of our study is that we only interviewed patients who had consented to take part in a trial which randomized them to an invitation to a CR programme and the findings on non-attendance cannot be generalized to patients who declined to take part in the trial who may have been less willing or able to exercise. These trial patients interviewed also had no choice in the programme they were initially randomized to. As happens in routine care, some patients were allocated to a programme which they did not want to do or was inappropriate for their needs and it meant they were unable to participate fully and were deemed to be ‘non-adherers’, although many still followed the messages on self-care. In a recent qualitative study of patients' preferences for home- or hospital-based CR, although four of the 17 patients were dissatisfied with or did not complete their chosen programme, none of the participants changed to the alternative CR programme.17
As far as we are aware, this is the first qualitative study of patients' experiences of home CR based on the Heart Manual. The latter is increasingly used in CR programmes and has been adapted for patients post-revascularization.13 Although some patients found motivation to exercise difficult, the Heart Manual and relaxation tapes were generally well received. Although adherence to the home-based exercises in the programme was low, a longer term commitment to increasing walking and activity was higher. The Heart Manual also helped family members to understand the lifestyle changes which were recommended and to support the patient in making these changes.
Several patients changed to their own preferred exercise programme rather than completing the CR programme, as even limited participation had given them the understanding of the importance of exercise and the confidence to exercise independently. This should be welcomed, but these patients would be labelled as non-attenders/adherers by a normal CR service. One US study which compared an intensive hospital CR programme with a modified CR programme, which facilitated independent exercise, found that patients on the modified programme had higher exercise adherence at 6 months.18 The Asian patients we interviewed showed an understanding of the advice about exercise and eating a healthier diet and were making significant changes to their diet. Adherence to CR is currently measured by the number of sessions attended2 and our findings suggest that this may not reflect what people actually do and is not appropriate for a home programme. Measuring clinical outcomes objectively may be a more appropriate way of measuring adherence.
Early CR programmes were targeted at middle-aged men with low co-morbidity. As a wider range of patients take part in CR, particularly older patients and those with co-morbidity, it is unrealistic to expect that they will all achieve the same level of exercise as in early studies. The benefits of CR are wider than taking part in formal exercise sessions as the programmes are a source of reliable and relevant information and help patients to make changes to their lifestyle to improve their health and reduce the risk of further cardiac events. The patients who dropped out of the hospital programme because they were unable to exercise also missed out on the rest of the programme and may have benefited from continuing to attend the education and relaxation components and from the support of staff and other patients.10,19 In a study of women recovering from an MI, the key unmet need was for reliable information.20
Important aspects of recent developments in the National Health Service are patient choice21 and self-care.22 This qualitative study of patients who had not adhered to a CR programme showed that many patients were willing and able to adopt self-care behaviours to improve their long-term health. Patients would benefit from a choice of a home or hospital CR programme,17 and also from being able to change programmes if their initial preference did not suit their needs as informed choice may not be possible due to lack of knowledge. Patients could also be encouraged to participate in part of a programme rather than drop out completely if they are unable to take part in all aspects of a comprehensive CR programme.
In conclusion, a significant finding of this study was that many patients who had not attended or not adhered to their CR programme had participated in rehabilitative activities in other ways. Patients were undertaking physical activity in less formal ways such as walking, gardening and housework and were making recommended lifestyle changes. Reasons for non-participation/non-adherence in CR were generally multifactorial and individualistic. Patients in the home rehabilitation programmes described problems with motivation, but those assigned to a hospital programme had more problems with communication and access, which may also be underpinned by a lack of motivation. Social characteristics, individual patient needs and preferences and the location of CR programmes need to be taken into account in programme design to maximize participation.
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Declaration |
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Funding: National Health Service Health Technology Assessment (grant no. 99/32/09) Programme to the BRUM study. The views and opinions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Health.
Ethical approval: The study was approved by the four local research ethics committees serving the four hospitals through which patients were recruited.
Conflicts of interest: None.
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We are grateful to all the patients and their families who took part in the interviews. The BRUM Steering Committee consists of K Jolly (Principal investigator), GYH Lip, SM Greenfield, JP Raftery, JW Mant, RS Taylor, D Lane and AJ Stevens. We thank Dr WK Lee and our CR nurses for their input and help with the trial.
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Notes |
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Jones M, Jolly K, Raftery J, Lip GYH and Greenfield S, on behalf of BRUM Steering Committee. ‘DNA’ may not mean ‘did not participate’: a qualitative study of reasons for non-adherence at home- and centre-based cardiac rehabilitation. Family Practice 2007; Pages 1–15 of 15.
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