Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death and serious consequences in women. Following cardiovascular events, women suffer from worse mental and physical health when compared to men, leading to poorer recovery. While cardiac rehabilitation (CR) improves mental and physical health, fewer women than men participate in CR programs due to greater time constraints and less interest in a conventional moderate-intensity continuous exercise (MICE) program. High-intensity aerobic interval training (AIT) has emerged as an alternative time-efficient, effective exercise program. However, it was unknown if women and men benefit similarly from AIT and MICE. We investigated if the effects of AIT and MICE on mental and physical health were influenced by sex. We analyzed the records of 120 patients with CVD who attended an 8-week, twice weekly outpatient CR program. Depression and anxiety were assessed using a questionnaire. Physical heath (i.e., body mass, waist circumference and resting blood pressure) was assessed using standardized procedures at baseline and following CR. Sixty (30 women and 30 men) patients completed AIT and another 60 patients (30 women and 30 men) completed MICE. There were no differences in exercise sessions attended between women and men or between AIT and MICE. Both women and men improved anxiety, depression, body mass and waist circumference. In women, however, AIT lowered anxiety severity more than MICE (-1.7 ± 2.7 vs. -0.4 ± 2.8 points). In men, MICE lowered anxiety severity more than AIT (-3.2 ± 2.9 vs. -2.3 ± 2.9 points). AIT is an alternative exercise modality in CR settings to improve mental and physical health of women and men. However, the improvement in anxiety severity was clinically meaningful (i.e., more than 1.7 points decrease) only following AIT in women. These findings underscore that CR interventions tailored to sex have the potential to augment the effectiveness of CR.