PSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS AMONG A SAMPLE OF CARDIAC REHABILITATION PATIENTS THAT HAVE GONE THROUGH COVID19 INFECTION

Background:

Because of the sanitary crisis of COVID19, our Cardiac Rehabilitation Program had to be transformed into a remote service from March to June 2020. The Lockdown in Spain started on March 13th, 2020. After one week of rearrangements, we were already offering full online service to our patients.

Methods:

Descriptive, retrospective, longitudinal study of a cohort of cardiac patients under recovery treatment admitted at the Cardiac Rehabilitation Unit from Instituto de Rehabilitación Funcional La Salle in Madrid from March 2020 to September 2021. They were twice assessed upon admission and discharged at an average stay of 3 months. They completed quality of life questionnaire (SF12), anxiety, depression and fear of movement scales (HAD, Beck and TSK17 cardio), level of physical activity (IPAQ), and personality type A (Bortner). Functional assessment was evaluated through ergometry with treadmill Bruce protocol. Parametric tests were used for statistical analysis.

Results:

30 patients with a mean age of 61.8 (43-79) years were included. 23% were women, 93% had comorbidity: hypertension 60%, sedentarism 37%, tabaquism 40%, dislipemia 47%, obesity 13%, diabetes 13% and family history 63%. The left ventricular ejection fraction was at admission 20% not preserved. All of them had previously gone through COVID19 infection, only 17% got it during the process of rehabilitation. There were 3 dropouts. The majority of patients had improvement in their functional capacity, anxiety and depression (P<0,001). In relation to the quality of life results, 40% showed no improvement at the summary mental component.

Conclusion:

Our cardiac patients, who have suffered from COVID19 with all stress added to their heart disease, have managed to go through the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program. Although the pandemic conditions may have influenced their results, the rehabilitation program has made them improved most of the variables reported.