A Preliminary-analysis Investigating The Web-based Cardiac Rehabilitation Needs And Preferences Of Women In Rural Australia

Cardiac rehabilitation(CR) is recommended for the secondary prevention of CVD, but women are reported to be less likely to enrol or adhere to traditional centre-based CR. In those living in regional areas, socioeconomic disadvantage and access inequalities to CR services exacerbate low CR uptake. PURPOSE To understand the needs and preferences of women living in rural Australia(rA) to inform the co-design of a web-based CR program. METHODS This qualitative research conducted six workshops across six rural regions in person(n = 12) and online(n = 7).Women living with heart disease, residing in regional areas, and had completed or were completing a CR program were included.Open-ended questions were developed for the workshops to generate discussion on the needs and preferences of women for CR delivery including social support, educational contents, exercise/physical activity(PA), and costs.Data from the workshops were transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis performed. RESULTS A total of 19women(age,69 ± 10 yrs) participated. Five themes were identified.Theme1:Earlier CR initiation-the importance of immediate enrolment into a CR program as the waiting period makes them feel lonely and anxious. Theme 2:Importance of education on factors beyond heart health-the need for information on topics such as menopause, exercise options, medication, mental health, and nutrition. Theme 3:Exercise/PA-the exercise component should be fun, conducted in groups, extended beyond the standard timeframe, and be initially supervised online to raise self-confidence in the context of feeling safe. Linking PA wearables with the web-based CR program may also provide motivation to be physically active and linkage with other patients in the web-based CR program. Theme 4:Financial burden of CR participation-out-of-pocket expenses such as transportation, medication, and follow-up assessments. Theme 5:Open to the use of web-based CR- web design should be simple, easy to use, and colourful, with content available in multiple languages. CONCLUSION These themes suggest that the re-development of our web-based CR to help increase CR uptake in women living in rA should include women’s health-related educational content and motivating exercise components that are initially supervised.