Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a program to help people recover after a being diagnosed with a heart problem such as acute coronary syndrome. Participation in CR is linked with a reduced chance of hospital stays or death from heart disease. Despite these benefits, many people choose not to participate in CR. Qualitative studies are a way to better understand people's decision-making about participating in CR, but these studies have usually been with people who have already joined a CR program. The purpose of this study is to look into the factors that might help or hinder participation in CR in a group of people who has not yet decided whether to join CR. Participants will include 20 patients with acute coronary syndrome who are referred to and eligible for the CR program at Total Cardiology Rehabilitation and Risk Reduction Centre (TCRRC) in Calgary, AB. They also need to be able to complete the study before their first scheduled CR appointment. The TCRRC program involves 12 weeks of supervised exercise sessions. All patients admitted to coronary care units in Calgary are automatically referred to TCRRC. For the study, patients meet with the researcher at the University of Calgary, at TCRRC, or as a home visit and complete a 60-75 minute interview. In the interview, patients are asked to respond to open-ended questions about the treatment of heart disease, advantages/disadvantages to CR, and barriers to CR attendance. The interview is audio-recorded and written down. The questions patients answer during the interviews will be analyzed using a method called content analysis, which allows us to look for themes in the types of responses people provide. This study has been approved by the Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board at the University of Calgary. As of January 2015, 15 patients have completed the study. Data analysis will be complete by March 2015. The results will be reported in an abstract submitted to Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in October 2015.