Physical Retraining in Heart Failure: Evaluation of 30 Patients at the Abidjan Institute of Cardiology (Ivory Coast)

Background: Evaluation during heart failure (HF) rehabilitation helps identify the risk factors for poor adherence to physical exercise. Nevertheless, contradictions exist and few studies focused on the motivation in the pursuit of sports activity.

Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective cohort pilot study of 30 heart failure patients who underwent cardiac rehabilitation between January 2015 and January 2019 at the Abidjan Institute of Cardiology in Ivory Coast. The patients and their treating physicians were recontacted on average of 19 months after their rehabilitation to specify their therapeutic adherence as well as the short-term and long-term clinical and paraclinical benefits.

Results: Our study showed that there were clinical and paraclinical advantages in the short-term and long-term rehabilitation at the Abidjan Institute of Cardiology. However, only 44% of the participants pursued physical exercise after rehabilitation. Lack of endurance at the end of rehabilitation (p=0.049) and insufficient motivation (p=0.021) were related to poor adherence to physical activity.

Conclusion: The endurance at the end of rehabilitation and patient motivation seems to be related to the continuation of physical activity. The Observed Progress in Endurance (OPE) is a novel variable that has been proposed to identify the potential least observant or compliants patients.