The PREHAB study is a clinical trial where frail patients waiting for heart surgery are randomly chosen to either receive the current standard of care or to participate in an 8-week exercise/education program at a community-based cardiac rehabilitation facility. Patients can wait for elective heart surgery for as long as 3-4 months. During this time, individuals are often fearful of making things worse, causing them to stop being active and further deteriorate their physical condition. This wait period presents a potential opportunity for health care providers to engage the patient to take control of their self-managed care prior to surgery with the intent of improving post-surgical outcomes. Patients randomized to the PREHAB intervention group will participate in supervised exercise twice per week in a program designed to improve physical functioning and exercise capacity. The investigators hypothesize that the PREHAB program for frail elderly patients awaiting an elective cardiac surgery will reduce frailty, improve exercise capacity, improve physical activity behaviour, improve in-hospital outcomes, improve clinical outcomes 3 months and 1 year postoperatively, and improve overall quality of life.
PREHAB will be a three centre prospective, randomized, open, blinded endpoint (PROBE) controlled trial using assessor blinding and intention-to-treat analysis. The study will be conducted at three academic, tertiary care hospitals (St. Boniface Hospital, Winnipeg, MB, Montreal Heart Institute. Montreal QC and Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, Halifax, NS) and one non-academic hospital (Saint John Regional Health Centre, Saint John, NB) that perform cardiac surgery. These sites were chosen based on similar patient populations and surgical waitlist times. Additionally, each of these sites are partnered with one or more community-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) centres, which are certified medical fitness facilities dedicated to improving the health of the community through health promotion, disease prevention and rehabilitation services. These facilities offer expert guidance from certified professionals, innovative health enhancement programs, and provide integrated medical, rehabilitative and fitness services. The investigators intend to recruit a total of 244 participants to the study (122 per study arm), anticipating a 20% dropout rate to achieve an eventual sample size of 194 participants. Patients in the PREHAB group will receive, in addition to standard of care, an eight-week comprehensive exercise therapy and education program at a community-based CR facility. This program will target both the physical and psycho-social-cognitive aspects of cardiac disease and frailty. In brief, participants will be required to complete an intake health status assessment by the CR team including a physiotherapist, cardiovascular nurse, and dietitian and complete a symptom-limited graded exercise stress test according to the American College of Sports Medicine Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription 7th Edition. Patients will be asked to complete at least two sessions of supervised, structured exercise class plus have the option to attend one additional exercise class per week for eight-weeks, with progression to a moderate to high-intensity interval program based on the supervised assessment of the patient's capabilities. This has been shown to be safe and effective in unrepaired heart failure and elderly patients. PREHAB participants will also attend four education sessions on topics such as risk factor reduction, medication use, cardiovascular physiology, smoking cessation, healthy eating, exercise, and stress management and promotion of self-managed care.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
89
Pre-operative, structured exercise intervention.
St. Boniface General Hospital
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Saint John Regional Hospital - New Brunswick Heart Centre
Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Montreal Heart Institute
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Laval University
Québec, Quebec, Canada
Proportion of Patients With Hospital Length of Stay Greater Than 7 Days.
Proportion of patients with hospital length of stay greater than 7 days compared to those with less than 7 days
Time frame: Post-surgery (approximately 9 weeks after baseline)
Baseline Exercise Capacity
This measure will be assessed using the results of a 6 minute walk test.
Time frame: baseline assessment - Study entry
Preoperative Exercise Capacity
This measure will be assessed using the results of a 6 minute walk test.
Time frame: Pre-Surgery (approximately 8 weeks after baseline)
3-Month Exercise Capacity
This measure will be assessed using the results of a 6 minute walk test.
Time frame: 3 Months Post-Surgery (approximately 5 months after baseline)
1-Year Exercise Capacity
This measure will be assessed using the results of a 6 minute walk test.
Time frame: 1 Year Post-Surgery (approximately 14 months after baseline)
Baseline Physical Activity Behaviour
This measure will be assessed objectively using accelerometers. Moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) will be compared
Time frame: baseline assessment - Study entry
Preoperative Physical Activity Behaviour
This measure will be assessed objectively using accelerometers. Moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) will be compared
Time frame: Pre-Surgery (approximately 8 weeks after baseline)
3-Month Physical Activity Behaviour
This measure will be assessed objectively using accelerometers. Moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) will be compared
Time frame: 3 Months Post-Surgery (approximately 5 months after baseline)
1-Year Physical Activity Behaviour
This measure will be assessed objectively using accelerometers. Moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) will be compared
Time frame: 1 Year Post-Surgery (approximately 14 months after baseline)
Baseline Health-Related Quality of Life
This measure will be assessed using EuroQual-Visual Analogue Scale. (EQ-VAS) This scale ranges from 0 - 100 with 0 = worst health and 100 = best health
Time frame: baseline assessment - Study entry
Preoperatve Health-Related Quality of Life
This measure will be assessed using EuroQual-Visual Analogue Scale. (EQ-VAS) This scale ranges from 0 - 100 with 0 = worst health and 100 = best health
Time frame: Pre-Surgery (approximately 8 weeks after baseline)
3-Month Health-Related Quality of Life
This measure will be assessed using EuroQual-Visual Analogue Scale. (EQ-VAS) This scale ranges from 0 - 100 with 0 = worst health and 100 = best health
Time frame: 3 Months Post-Surgery (approximately 5 months after baseline)
1-Year Health-Related Quality of Life
This measure will be assessed using EuroQual-Visual Analogue Scale. (EQ-VAS) This scale ranges from 0 - 100 with 0 = worst health and 100 = best health
Time frame: 1 Year Post-Surgery (approximately 14 months after baseline)
Baseline Frailty
This measure will be assessed using the Modified Fried Criteria score Score ranges from 0 - 5, 0=not frail, 1=prefrail, 2-5=frail
Time frame: baseline assessment - Study entry
Preoperative Frailty
This measure will be assessed using the Modified Fried Criteria score Score ranges from 0 - 5, 0=not frail, 1=prefrail, 2-5=frail
Time frame: Pre-Surgery (approximately 8 weeks after baseline)
3-Month Frailty
This measure will be assessed using the Modified Fried Criteria score Score ranges from 0 - 5, 0=not frail, 1=prefrail, 2-5=frail
Time frame: 3 Months Post-Surgery (approximately 5 months after baseline)
1-Year Frailty
This measure will be assessed using the Modified Fried Criteria Score ranges from 0 - 5, 0=not frail, 1=prefrail, 2-5=frail
Time frame: 1 Year Post-Surgery (approximately 14 months after baseline)
Baseline Anxiety
This measure will be assessed using the General Anxiety Disorder - 7 (GAD-7) Score is out of 0-21 points. The higher the score the more symptoms of anxiety may be observed
Time frame: Baseline Assessment - Study entry
Preoperative Anxiety
This measure will be assessed using the General Anxiety Disorder - 7 (GAD-7) Score is out of 0-21 points. The higher the score the more symptoms of anxiety may be observed
Time frame: Pre-Surgery Assessment (approximately 8 weeks after baseline)
3-Month Anxiety
This measure will be assessed using the General Anxiety Disorder - 7 (GAD-7) Score is out of 0-21 points. The higher the score the more symptoms of anxiety may be observed
Time frame: 3 Months Post-Surgery (approximately 5 months after baseline)
1-Year Anxiety
This measure will be assessed using the General Anxiety Disorder - 7 (GAD-7) Score is out of 0-21 points. The higher the score the more symptoms of anxiety may be observed
Time frame: 1 Year Post-Surgery (approximately 14 months after baseline)
Baseline Depression
This measure will be assessed using the Five-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-5) Score is based from 0-5. A score of 2 or more may indicated symptoms of depression
Time frame: Baseline Assessment - Study entry
Preoperative Depression
This measure will be assessed using the Five-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-5) Score is based from 0-5. A score of 2 or more may indicated symptoms of depression
Time frame: Pre-surgery Assessment ( 8 weeks after baseline)
3-Month Depression
This measure will be assessed using the Five-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-5) Score is based from 0-5. A score of 2 or more may indicated symptoms of depression
Time frame: 3 Months Post-Surgery (approximately 5 months after baseline)
1 Year Depression
This measure will be assessed using the Five-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-5) Score is based from 0-5. A score of 2 or more may indicated symptoms of depression
Time frame: 1 year Post-Surgery (approximately 14 months after baseline)
Postoperative Major Adverse Events
Major adverse events include death, myocardial infarction (MI), stroke or renal failure requiring dialysis.
Time frame: Post-Surgery (approximately 9 weeks after baseline)
Postoperative Cardiac Rehabilitation Attendance
Will be assessed using administrative data from participating cardiac rehabilitation facilities.
Time frame: Post-Surgery (approximately 20 weeks after baseline)
This platform is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional.