Risk factor management after short-term versus long-term cardiac rehabilitation program

The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of a short-term cardiac rehabilitation program (ST-CRP) and a long-term cardiac rehabilitation program (LT-CRP) in patients who had an acute myocardial infarction regarding coronary artery disease (CAD) risk factor management 1 year post-event. For this purpose, 74 patients participated in either a short-term (3 months) cardiac rehabilitation program (ST-CRP; n = 37) or a long-term (12 months) cardiac rehabilitation program (LT-CRP; n = 37). Both interventions were effective for management of CAD risk factors by improving lipoprotein-lipid profile, exercise capacity and smoking cessation. However, no significant reduction was observed in body weight and body fat distribution index at 1 year post-event in both intervention groups. Furthermore, improvements in CAD risk factors, such as lipoprotein-lipid profile and smoking habits were significantly greater in the LT-CRP group. Also, significantly more patients attained the recommended target values of ≤2.5 mmol/L for plasma low-density lipoprotein levels (46% vs 22%; P < 0.01) and a ratio of ≤4 for total plasma cholesterol/high density lipoprotein (46% vs 19%; P < 0.01) of the Canadian Working group on hypercholesterolemia. Both intervention program produced beneficial effects regarding CAD risk factor management, nonetheless, long-term participation in a cardiac rehabilitation program had a greater impact on the CAD risk factor profile of patients at 1 year post-event.