- Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States .
- Cardiovascular rehabilitation programs can reduce rates of death and re-hospitalization.
- Experts say women are underrepresented in these programs and are not reaping the important health benefits.
- Family responsibilities, program costs, and access are some of the factors that are preventing women from attending.
Women are not reaping the benefits of cardiovascular rehabilitation programs at the same rate as men.
That’s according to a study published today in The Canadian Journal of Cardiology that reports that women face many barriers from attending the programs that can significantly reduce death and re-hospitalization rates.
“The benefits of cardiac rehab participation are remarkable, plus patients get back their vitality and can return to their meaningful life roles. Unfortunately, women face many structural barriers to attending – from the individual to health system levels. We developed the Cardiac Rehab Barriers Scale (CRBS) almost 25 years ago to better characterize them, and it remains the most widely used and rigorous measurement scale to assess these barriers,” Sherry Grace, PhD, the lead investigator of the study and the director of Research of Cardiac Rehabilitation at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at York University in Toronto, said in a press statement.
Cardiovascular rehabilitation programs, also known as cardiac rehab, are programs designed to improve the cardiovascular health of those who have experience heart failure, heart attack, heart surgery, or angioplasty.
The programs are medically supervised and involve exercise, counseling for stress reduction, and education to promote heart healthy living.
Cardiovascular rehabilitation programs are known to improve health outcomes, but experts say they are underutilized by women.
“Cardiac rehab has been shown to be the single most beneficial intervention after someone has developed symptomatic heart disease. Above…
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