The New Age of Cardiac Rehab: Do Adult Protocols Meet the Needs of Children?

Abstract

<h3>Objective(s)</h3> To investigate the term "pediatric cardiac rehabilitation" in the pediatric heart population, focusing on primary outcome measures as related to motor skills, cognition, or developmental stage of the participants. <h3>Data Sources</h3> CINAHL Complete, EBSCOhost, ProQuest Nursing and Allied Health, and Pubmed with no date limiter, five top peer-reviewed subject matter journals, and five other sources from systematic reviews. <h3>Study Selection</h3> Inclusion: "cardiac rehabilitation" and "rehabilitation" and "cardiopulmonary rehabilitation" in the pediatric (0-18) heart population (congenital and pediatric-onset transplant and acquired heart conditions). 636 initial articles identified, 13 articles remained after duplicates removed/screening for non-topic, adult subjects, and excluding "exercise training" and "physical activity program" and "endurance training" without the term "pediatric cardiac rehabilitation." <h3>Data Extraction</h3> Independent data extraction by two separate researchers during initial screening, title and abstract review, and full-text article summary. <h3>Data Synthesis</h3> Results were descriptive in nature. As was hypothesized: All included some form of exercise- or activity-based protocols (100%); One study (7.7%) addressed developmentally-appropriate activities and education; Four studies (30.8%) included some form of motor assessment such strength, range of motion, or fine and gross motor norm-referenced test; and none addressed cognition. The primary intervention was based on adult cardiac rehabilitation protocols that included a warm-up (stretching), activity (strength or aerobic), and cool-down (relaxation) phases and included education components. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Most studies were exercise-based and followed the secondary prevention principles of adult cardiac rehabilitation programs and few addressed the potential complexities of chronic childhood illness on development, attainment of needed motor skills to perform physical activity, cognitive disruptions of heart-failure brain injury, or long-term effects of such a training approach, which would not be considerations in an adult model. <h3>Author(s) Disclosures</h3> No disclosures