Deprivation and supervised exercise for intermittent claudication

Abstract

Introduction: Supervised exercise is the first-line management for intermittent claudication and researchers must demonstrate that it is acceptable to patients and sustainable. Non-compliance with supervised exercise is an incompletely understood issue. It is unknown whether living in a more socioeconomically deprived area is associated with non-compliance with supervised exercise. Methods: Consecutive patients referred to the National Exercise Referral Scheme (NERS) for intermittent claudication from a single centre from January 2017 to December 2018 were eligible for inclusion. The Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) was used as a measure of deprivation for small areas in this study. The primary outcome was number of patients attending the NERS programme after referral. Secondary outcomes were number of patients completing the NERS programme, factors associated with attending and completing the NERS programme, and quality of life scores (EQ-5D-5L). Results: Of the 164 patients in our cohort, 28 (17.1%) attended the exercise programme and 12 (7.3%) completed the full programme. Living in a more socioeconomically deprived area was not associated with attending the programme or completing the programme. There was insufficient quality of life score data for meaningful analysis. Conclusions: The uptake and completion rate for supervised exercise in this cohort was low. There was no association between living in a more socioeconomic deprived area and either of these outcomes. Further qualitative research is needed to understand patients’ perspective of barriers to compliance with exercise programmes and how to overcome them.