The effectiveness of cardiac rehabilitation patient education through various media

Abstract

Background: Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is one of the leading cause of death globally for the past 15 years according to the updated data from World Health Organization in January 2017. Deaths caused by IHD increased by an estimated 41.7% from 1990 to 2013. Therefore, in addition to medical procedure improvement, continuing efforts should be put in the prevention and control of heart disease by actively educating people and promoting self-health management. For patients with coronary artery disease, cardiac rehabilitation may reduce its recurrence and mortality. By practicing the cardiac rehabilitation, the rates of subsequent coronary events would be decreased and the morbidity and the total mortality would be reduced as well. Patient education is also an important part of the cardiac rehabilitation, while its effectiveness through various media may be different. Purpose: To explore and compare the effectiveness of cardiac rehabilitation patient education among three types of media, text only, text and pictures, and video. Methods: This study was divided into two stages. The first stage was the testing of validity of “Cardiac Rehabilitation Awareness Scale (CRAS)” done by five experts. The second stage was the test of the effectiveness of various media by 90 subjects using the CRAS. The subjects were divided into three groups and each group used one type of patient education medium. The subjects carried out the tests according to five different age levels. Results: 1. The validity of “Cardiac Rehabilitation Awareness Scale” was confirmed as a measurement tool of the effectiveness of cardiac rehabilitation patient education. 2. There was no significant difference in the effectiveness of patient education of the three media (P = 0.6001) but “video” received highest subjects preference. Conclusion: It is suggested that currently for clinical application, the “text and pictures” material may be used to educate the IHD patients for its convenience, low cost and preference. With the development of information and communication technology, the “video” may be the better option in the future.