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Review
. 2024 Mar-Apr:64:14-23.
doi: 10.1016/j.hrtlng.2023.11.004. Epub 2023 Nov 18.

Evidence-informed development of women-focused cardiac rehabilitation education

Gabriela Lima de Melo Ghisi  1 , Andree-Anne Hebert  2 , Paul Oh  3 , Tracey Colella  3 , Crystal Aultman  4 , Carolina Carvalho  5 , Rajni Nijhawan  4 , Marie-Kristelle Ross  2 , Sherry L Grace  6
Affiliations
Review

Evidence-informed development of women-focused cardiac rehabilitation education

Gabriela Lima de Melo Ghisi et al. Heart Lung. 2024 Mar-Apr.

Abstract

Background: Despite their differential risk factor burden, context and often different forms of heart disease, cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs generally do not provide women with needed secondary prevention information specific to them.

Objective: to co-design evidence-informed, theory-based comprehensive women-focused education, building from Health e-University's Cardiac College for CR.

Methods: A multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder steering committee (N = 18) oversaw the four-phase development of the women-focused curriculum. Phase 1 involved a literature review on women's CR information needs and preferences, phase 2 a CR program needs assessment, phase 3 content development (including determining content and mode, assigning experts to create the content, plain language review and translation), and phase 4 will comprise evaluation and implementation. In phase 2, a focus group was conducted with Canadian CR providers; it was analyzed using Braun and Clarke's iterative approach.

Results: Nineteen providers participated in the focus group, with four themes emerging: current status of education, challenges to delivering women-focused education, delivery modes and topical resources. Results were consistent with those from our related global survey, supporting saturation of themes. Co-designed educational materials included 19 videos. These were organized across 5 webpages in English and French, specific to tests and treatments, exercise, diet, psychosocial well-being, and self-management. Twelve corresponding session slide decks with notes for clinicians were created, to support program delivery in CR flexibly.

Conclusion: While further evaluation is underway, these open-access CR education resources will be disseminated for implementation, to support women in reducing their risk of cardiovascular sequelae.

Keywords: Cardiac rehabilitation; Cardiovascular prevention; Educational materials; Gender medicine; Patient education as a topic; Women.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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