Rationale: Various outcomes tools have been used to assess patient-perceived improvement following participation in cardiac rehabilitation (CR). Assessment of the change in SF-12 subscores following CR, however, appears to be lacking.
Objectives: To assess the change in SF-12 subscores following completion of a 12-week comprehensive CR program.
Methods: Fifty-five subjects diagnosed with coronary artery disease (49 males/6 females, age: 58.1 +/-11.4 years) enrolled in a 12-week multidisciplinary interventional CR program at the Cardiac Wellness Institute of Calgary were included in this analysis. Subjects completed the SF-12 prior to and following completion of CR. Physical function (PF), role physical (RF), bodily pain (BP), general health (GH), vitality (VI), social function (SF), role emotional (RE), and mental health (MH) SF-12 subscores were determined.
Results: All 55 subjects successfully completed the 12-week CR program. There was a significant improvement in peak metabolic equivalent (MET) level following CR (8.4 +/-1.6 vs 9.5 +/-1.6 METs, P < .001). Paired t test results for SF-12 subscores are listed in Table 1. All subscores were significantly improved following CR. The largest improvement was observed in the "RF" subscore. Pearson product-moment correlation revealed the relationship between change in peak MET level and change in RP subscore was statistically significant (r = 0.30, P = .025). Change in peak MET level was not significantly correlated with any other SF-12 subscore (r <= 0.14, P <= .32).
Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate a comprehensive CR program significantly improves physical and psychosocial health perception as measured by the SF-12. The majority of these improvements do not appear to be related to the level of improvement in exercise capacity. Given the ability of the SF-12 to detect several aspects of patient-perceived health, its use as an outcomes assessment tool in CR may prove to be advantageous.