Patients' Perceptions of Exercise-Based Cardiac Telerehabilitation after a Myocardial Infarction-A Qualitative Study

Abstract

To be able to design telerehabilitation programs targeting the needs and preferences of end-users, patients' in-depth perspectives are needed. To date, such studies are lacking and, therefore, the aim of the present study was to describe patients' perceptions of performing exercise-based cardiac telerehabilitation after a myocardial infarction (MI). Individual semi-structured interviews were performed with 15 patients (3 women, median age 69 years) after an MI who had participated in exercise-based cardiac telerehabilitation for three months. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed with inductive content analysis. An overall theme was defined as "Cardiac telerehabilitation-a new alternative for exercising that is easily accessible and up to date". Four categories, including "The important role of a physical therapist with expert knowledge", "Prerequisites playing an important role in the willingness to participate", "Making exercise accessible and adjustable" and "Inspiring future exercise", and 15 subcategories were identified. Understanding the patient's perspective is an important key to further improving and successfully implementing exercise-based cardiac telerehabilitation, as an alternative or adjunct to traditional, centre-based programs. The findings can serve to improve patient-physiotherapist interactions and to inform important aspects related to exercise, technology and a sense of security from an exercise-based cardiac telerehabilitation program.

Keywords: coronary artery disease; exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation; interviews; physical therapy; telerehabilitation.