Conclusions : Telehealth interventions with a range of delivery modes could be offered to patients who can not attend cardiac rehabilitation , or as an adjunct to cardiac rehabilitation for effective secondary prevention
Background : Coronary heart disease ( CHD ) is a major cause of death worldwide .
Cardiac rehabilitation , an evidence -based CHD secondary prevention programme , remains underutilized .
Telehealth may offer an innovative solution to overcome barriers to cardiac rehabilitation attendance .
We aim ed to determine whether contemporary telehealth interventions can provide effective secondary prevention as an alternative or adjunct care compared with cardiac rehabilitation and /or usual care for patients with CHD .
The Impact of Text Messaging on Medication Adherence and Exercise Among Postmyocardial Infarction Patients: Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial
Background Adherence to evidence -based therapies such as medications and exercise remains poor among patients after a myocardial infa rct ion ( MI ) .  Text message reminders have been shown to improve rates of adherence to medication and exercise , but the existing studies have been of short duration . Objective Two single-center r and omized controlled pilot trials were conducted to evaluate the impact of text message reminders over 12 months on adherence to cardiac medications and exercise among patients receiving cardiac rehabilitation after hospitalization for MI . Methods In the medication adherence trial , 34 patients were r and omized to receive usual care alone or usual care plus daily text message reminders delivered at the time of day at which medications were to be taken . In the exercise adherence trial , 50 patients were r and omized to receive usual care alone or usual care plus 4 daily text messages reminding them to exercise as directed . Results The text message reminders led to a mean 14.2 percentage point improvement in self-reported medication adherence over usual care ( P<.001 , 95 % CI 7 - 21 ) . In the exercise trial , text message reminders result ed in an additional 4.2 days ( P=.001 , 95 % CI 1.9 - 6.4 ) and 4.0 hours ( P<.001 , 95 % CI 2.4 - 5.6 ) of exercise per month over usual care and a nonsignificant increase of 1.2 metabolic equivalents ( METS ; P=.06 ) in exercise capacity as assessed by a BRUCE protocol at 12 months . Conclusions Text message reminders significantly increased adherence to medication and exercise among post-MI patients receiving care in a structured cardiac rehabilitation program . This technology represents a simple and scalable method to ensure consistent use of evidence -based cardiovascular therapies . Trial Registration Clinical trials.gov NCT02783287 ; https:// clinical trials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02783287 ( Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6sBnvNb05
Conclusions : Telehealth interventions with a range of delivery modes could be offered to patients who can not attend cardiac rehabilitation , or as an adjunct to cardiac rehabilitation for effective secondary prevention
Background : Coronary heart disease ( CHD ) is a major cause of death worldwide .
Cardiac rehabilitation , an evidence -based CHD secondary prevention programme , remains underutilized .
Telehealth may offer an innovative solution to overcome barriers to cardiac rehabilitation attendance .
We aim ed to determine whether contemporary telehealth interventions can provide effective secondary prevention as an alternative or adjunct care compared with cardiac rehabilitation and /or usual care for patients with CHD .