None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Exercise training has conventionally been considered a key factor in the multi-disciplinary approach to cardiac rehabilitation. However, recent systematic review and meta-analyses have reported a reduced effectiveness, particularly in regional areas with limited resources for exercising testing and delivery. Specifically, poor adherence to exercise programs among participants exiting in-hospital care reduce the effectiveness of exercise interventions with lack of time, commute time and lack of motivation common barriers. Therefore, the proposed project is designed to assess the effectiveness of a six-week training program delivered on-site compared to a telehealth intervention. The primary hypothesis is that telehealth is not inferior to supervised training for ExCRP-induced improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, lipid profile, autonomic modulation, and arterial compliance. It is further hypothesized that objectively monitored telehealth will result in comparable exercise prescription fidelity between the two delivery modes.
Interventions
A 6-week single-blinded, two-arm parallel, randomized non-inferiority trial will be conducted. Baseline testing will include completing health questionnaires, Holter heart rate monitoring and blood sampling, before participants are randomly allocated an onsite (arm 1) or telehealth (arm 2) delivered training intervention. The training sessions will be delivered individually via telehealth using a combination of audio and audio-video monitoring or supervised (on-site) in a group exercise setting
A 6-week single-blinded, two-arm parallel, randomized non-inferiority trial will be conducted. Baseline testing will include completing health questionnaires, Holter heart rate monitoring and blood sampling, before participants are randomly allocated an onsite (arm 1) or telehealth (arm 2) delivered training intervention. The training sessions will be delivered individually via telehealth using a combination of audio and audio-video monitoring or supervised (on-site) in a group exercise setting by qualified personnel with previous experience in implementing training programs. Exercise prescription will be standardized between groups as aerobic exercise that can be completed on stationary cycle ergometers or treadmill (on-site) with telehealth group advised to use aerobic modes at their disposal (most likely walking or jogging). Telehealth participants will be required to log their training sessions (total time and intensity reported as average heart rate) using heart rate monitors provided by the research team via online exercise app (Polar Flow). Training prescription: six (6) weeks, three (3) sessions per week of aerobic exercise conducted at a workload equivalent to the ventilatory anaerobic threshold (determined from cardiopulmonary exercise test in baseline testing). Total session time, including standardized warm up and cool down will be 60 minutes. Upon completion of training both groups will return for post-intervention testing consisting of the same baseline measures conducted in a standardized manner.
Sponsors
La Trobe University
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Age 18 years or older Efficient verbal English Skills Diagnosed with cardiovascular disease Exiting in-patient cardiac rehabilitation Physically able to complete exercise testing Available to meet the time commitments Access to a phone
Exclusion criteria
Diagnosed with heart failure or hypertrophic myopathy Heart transplant participants Unstable angina or myocardial infarction < 1 month
Outcome results
None listed