ABSTRACT
Background Government responses and restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., limits to non-urgent health care services, including non-urgent outpatient appointments) led to the suspension of center-based (in-person) cardiac rehabilitation (CR), with many programs switching to virtual delivery. This study aimed to understand the characteristics and correlates of disease-related knowledge and exercise self-efficacy in a group of patients attending a virtual CR program during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Peru. Methods In this prospective observational study, 240 patients receiving virtual CR care (exercise instructions and patient education) between August/2020 and December/2021 completed questionnaires pre- and post-CR assessing disease-related knowledge (CADE-Q SV questionnaire) and self-efficacy (SE;Bandura's Exercise SE scale). Paired t tests were used to investigate changes pre/post-CR and Pearson correlation coefficients were used to determine the association between knowledge/SE and patients' characteristics. Results Participants were mainly comprised of men, with a cardiac diagnosis of stable coronary artery disease, who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention or had a known diagnosis of hypertension and with at least one cardiovascular risk factor (95.8%). Mean total knowledge scores improved significantly at post-CR (12.9±2.4 to 15.6±2.0/20;p<0.001), as well as in 4/5 knowledge areas (cardiovascular risk factors, exercise, nutrition, and psychosocial risk;p<0.001). Mean SE scores improved significantly at post-CR (1.9±0.9 to 3.0±0.9/5;p=0.01). Post-CR knowledge and SE were significantly correlated with cardiac diagnosis and surgical procedures (r=0.17, p =0.02 and r=0.27, p=0.02, respectively). Conclusions The virtual CR program improved disease-related knowledge and SE of cardiac patients during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Post-CR outcomes were correlated with cardiac diagnosis and surgical procedures and more research with other characteristics is warrantied.