German Clinical Trials Register

Acronym/abbreviation of the study

OutCaRe

URL of the study

http://www.uni-potsdam.de/rehawiss/forschung/projekte/outcare-outcome-der-kardiologischen-rehabilitation-eine-methodenevaluierung-bei-berufsfaehigen-patienten-zur-quantifizierung-des-rehabilitationserfolges.html

Brief summary in lay language

Cardiac rehabilitation is a multimodal, interdisciplinary intensive measure for patients with chronic cardiovascular disease or after an acute cardiac event such as a myocardial infarction. Medical care, physical training, patient training, nutrition and lifestyle counseling as well as social-medical and psychological care are the core components of cardiac rehabilitation. Thereby functional factors such as physical performance, personal factors such as the reduction of a depressive mood and social aspects such as the return to work should be affected simultaneously. Due to the high complexity, taking all the involved therapeutic components into account, the success of a cardiac rehabilitation has not been possibly determined through a procedure. In the current study, various parameters of the categories of physical performance, cardiovascular risk factors, social medicine and psychology are to be examined for changes by rehabilitation and their predictive power for return to work after rehabilitation.

Brief summary in scientific language

Against the background of the social-law obligation to safeguard and develop the quality of medical rehabilitation (§ 20 SGB IX), methods of outcome measurement become increasingly important. In the quality assurance programs of the paying authorities, the dimensions of process and structural quality are currently being examined. The outcome, on the other hand, appears underrepresented and is essentially operationalized by patient and physician consultations at the end or after the rehabilitation procedure. The outcome is based on the health condition of a patient resulting from a health care measure. Cardiac rehabilitation, however, is a highly complex, interdisciplinary, patient-specific, holistic and intensive medical-therapeutic measure and it´s success couldn´t be defined in general terms. It therefore seems appropriate to identify indicators that show the success of the various core components of cardiac rehabilitation and reflect in their totality the outcome of cardiac rehabilitation. In the course of this evaluation study, the previous Delphi expert survey questioned the importance of performance measures as part of quality assurance by chief physicians, leading sports/physiotherapists and psychologists of cardiac rehabilitation. At the same time, the participants met a selection of potential outcome indicators. The aim of the study is to identify and evaluate performance measures of cardiac rehabilitation for patients under 65 years of age with regard to their suitability and practicability, and to investigate their predictive power for their return to work and health-related quality of life.