The positive impact of a four-week Cardiac Rehabilitation program on depression levels of cardiological patients

Abstract

PurposeTo investigate the positive impact of a Cardiac Rehabilitation program on levels of depression in patients after an acute cardiac event and to verify if some socio-demographic variables, as diagnosis, gender and age, and variables related to work and social support (working occupation, marital status, presence/absence of children) could be considered as predictors of depression, both at the beginning and at the end of the Cardiac Rehabilitation. MethodsOne hundred and twenty-two patients completed the BDI-II questionnaire for evaluate depressive symptoms, before and after a four-week Cardiac Rehabilitation program. Changes in the scores were compared using paired t-test. Linear regression was used to verify predictors of depression. ResultsMean BDI-II scores decreased significantly between PRE-and POST evaluation, both in the affective factor (t=2.66, p<0.01), in cognitive factor (t=3.89, p<0.01) and in total score of BDI-II (t=3.68, p<0.01). Also, at PRE-evaluation levels of depression were predicted by gender (β=.312, t=2.55, p<0.01) and presence of children (β=.426, t=3.08, p<0.01). ConclusionThe decreased levels of depression showed the positive impact of Cardiac Rehabilitation program where structured activities have many beneficial effects on the psychological status of patients. The current findings suggested to consider gender difference and presence of social support to set up interventions for patients with heart disease.