Photo Credit: Dragos Condrea

The following is a summary of “Are cardiac rehabilitation pathways influenced by diabetes: A cohort study,” published in the September 2024 issue of Cardiology by Gadager et al. 

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is advised after acute coronary syndrome (ACS), but there is limited research on including patients with diabetes in CR, despite diabetes being common in patients with ACS. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study exploring CR referrals, uptake, and completion rates in patients with ACS, with and without diabetes, to uncover possible barriers.  

They included patients aged 18+ who were discharged after ACS between September 2017 and August 2018 in Central Denmark. Diabetes data came from three sources. Logistic regression models analyzed the link between diabetes and non-referral, non-uptake, and non-completion of CR, reported as odds ratio (OR) with 95% CI.

The results showed that out of 2,447 eligible patients, 457 (18.7%) had diabetes. After adjusting for other variables, only non-uptake was significantly linked to diabetes (OR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.01-1.90). Non-referral (OR=1.11, 95% CI: 0.87-1.41) and non-completion (OR=1.06, 95% CI: 0.73-1.53) were not significantly different between patients with and without diabetes. 

Investigators concluded a notable gap in CR uptake between patients with ACS and those without diabetes, suggesting that patients with diabetes need more early promotion and support to enroll in CR.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167527324008970