Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

In Canada, 2.4 million people are living with heart disease. After a diagnosis, cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is often prescribed to individuals with heart disease. It typically involves exercise and education to help improve their health, and has been proven to reduce the risk for another cardiovascular event and death by improving fitness. Because of the differences in activity levels, eating and other healthy habits of people in CR, it isn't clear whether improvements in fitness can be seen in everyone. Recent studies found that people who smoke or have previously smoked had less fitness improvements in short-term CR, lasting less than 3 months. Still, the effects haven't been studied in the long-term. This study explains how smoking habits relate to long-term changes in fitness. The results of this study found that past and current smokers have lower fitness in long-term CR compared to people who have never smoked. But, even though their fitness was lower, the way their fitness changed was not different. In short, while smoking consistently lowered fitness levels, people might still benefit from long-term CR, regardless of their smoking habits. This study highlights the need for CR in Canada beyond short-term programs and shows that everyone may still benefit from long-term rehabilitation, regardless of their past habits.