Body Image and Adjustment among Patients with Heart Rhythm Management Devices following Cardiac Rehabilitation Program: A Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial.

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Introduction: Heart rhythm management devices save patients' lives. However, they may cause problems with the patient's perspective of their body image. Therefore, given the significance of the heart function and cardiac rehabilitation, this study was conducted to investigate and compare the effect of the cardiac rehabilitation program on adjustment and body image among patients who use heart rhythm management devices.Methods: This two-group clinical trial was conducted with 100 patients who used various heart rhythm management devices. The patients were randomly assigned into either the control group or intervention group (50 patients in each group) via four triad blocks. The intervention was 16 sessions of the cardiac rehabilitation program and 4 telephone follow-ups over twelve weeks. Data was gathered before the intervention and both eight and twelve weeks after the intervention using the psychosocial adjustment to illness scale and the body image and relationships scale.Findings: The majority of the patients were male and in the age range of 40-60 years. Before the intervention, no statistically significant differences were reported between the groups in terms of adjustment control = 68.13 ± 9.1, intervention = 67.13 ± 4.6) and body image (control = 93.14 ± 8.5, intervention = 91.16 ± 8.4) (P>0.5). However, in the intervention group, with each of three devices (pacemaker, ICD, CRT), significant improvements were observed in all aspects of adjustment (16.7 ± 9.3, 25.3 ± 9.5, 20.6 ± 10.3) and body image (45.50 ± 9.80, 55.10 ± 8.80, 42.90 ± 6.10) over time respectively (P<0.001).Conclusion: The effectiveness of the cardiac rehabilitation program in improving the body image was reported in this study. Therefore, the cardiac rehabilitation program can have a vital role in improving body image and adjustment among patients who use various cardiac rhythm management devices.