Does participation in cardiac rehabilitation affect health outcomes and health care utilization and costs?

Abstract

Exercise based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs have been shown to be efficacious in the reduction of recurrent cardiovascular events and increased physical and psychological function. However, in North America only about 10-40% of eligible CVD patients are referred to CR. One reason for poor CR referral may be a lack of information on the costs and health care utilization associated with CR. Thus, the purpose of this project was to explore differences in health care utilization and costs among patients who attended and did not attend cardiac rehabilitation.