Do You Have the Heart to Quit?

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Heart disease patients who complete rehabilitation programs help reduce health care costs.
Posted On: April 24, 2017
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In Ontario, there are 53 cardiac rehabilitation programs servicing 18,000 patients per year.

Most New Year’s resolutions are to lose weight or eat healthier. However, the majority of people who make resolutions fail to see them through. While this may seem harmless, when it comes to failing to complete cardiac rehabilitation programs, the consequences may be grave.

That’s what a recent study found by looking at the effects of cardiac rehabilitation program completion rates on patients and the Ontario health care system. These medically supervised programs use a combination of exercise, education and counselling to help people recover from heart attacks or other heart-related conditions.

In the study, TRI Senior Scientist Dr. David Alter and his research team followed more than 12,500 patients—half of which were referred to cardiac rehabilitation programs by their doctors and the other half of which were not—over the course of three years. They found that only 30 per cent of referred patients actually completed their rehabilitation program. The patients that completed their programs not only had better survival, but also cost the health care system $3,000 less per year compared to those who were not referred, did not show up or dropped out.

Using these data, the researchers estimate that the Ontario health care system could save $100 million if cardiac patients completed their rehabilitation programs. “This study highlights the need to place a much greater focus on those who are dropping out and what else we can do within the health care system to engage these patients, which will drive down costs and maximize heart disease survival,” explains Dr. Alter. “Given that current funding for cardiac rehabilitation is very limited and constrained in the province, these findings also provide evidence that additional funding for these programs would result in a significant return on investment for the health care system.”

This work was supported by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and the Toronto Rehab Foundation.

Alter DA, Yu B, Bajaj RR, Oh PI. Relationship Between Cardiac Rehabilitation Participation and Health Service Expenditures Within a Universal Health Care System. Mayo Clin Proc. 2017 Mar 13. doi: 10.1016/j.mayocp.2016.12.024.