Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation for Ischaemic Non-Obstructive Coronary Artery Disease: Implementation Considerations From a Survey of UK Health Professionals

Abstract

Aims: Investigate if UK healthcare professionals have the resources and knowledge to provide cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation to people with ischaemic non-obstructive coronary artery disease (INOCA), and explore what type of care healthcare professionals believe patients should receive. Design: Electronic cross-sectional survey of UK healthcare professionals, circulated between 7 January and 7 March 2022. Methods: Quantitative data were analysed descriptively. Qualitative data were analysed inductively. Results: Healthcare professionals lacked knowledge and capacity to care for this patient group. Healthcare professionals recommended patients receive two unsupervised sessions per week, for 8 weeks, at home and in person. Recommend include physical activity advice/exercise training, health behaviour support, psychological support, smoking cessation, dietetics/nutritional support, weight management, counselling and medication titration. Conclusion: In the UK, healthcare professionals lack resources and knowledge to provide cardiovascular presentation and rehabilitation to people with INOCA. Recommended care reflected care currently available to other patient groups. Implications for the Profession: There is a need to create and evaluate educational material for healthcare professionals. Impact: Before people with INOCA are offered cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation it was necessary to determine if healthcare professionals had sufficient clinical knowledge and resources to provide care. We conclude that additional training and resources are required to enable health professionals to deliver care to people with INOCA. Researchers should create and evaluate educational material for cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation programmes. Programmes also require additional resources to deliver care to this group. Reporting Method: Reporting adheres to the Cherries guidelines. Patient or Public Contribution: A patient (SB) was consulted on study design, data collection, and interpretation, and manuscript preparation.