Publicly Versus Privately-Funded Cardiac Rehabilitation

This is an observational cross-sectional study designed to investigate the barriers encountered by patients after admission to a public and private PRC and to correlate the barriers with the population profile. To participate in this study, patients were recruited for convenience of two CRPs offered in the city of Presidente Prudente - SP, one linked to the private service offered by the Heart Institute (INCOR) and another public in the Cardiology Sector of the Center for Studies and Attendance in Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation - CEAFiR of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology, State University of São Paulo, Júlio de Mesquita Filho (FCT-UNESP). As eligibility criteria, patients over 18 years of age, regardless of sex, diagnosed with cardiovascular diseases or referred for risk factor prevention and who had attended CRP for at least 3 months, regardless of the frequency percentage, were considered. Patients who were not found after three visits to the programs for evaluation were excluded from the study. After the initial invitation and evaluation of the eligibility criteria, the participants were informed about the procedures and objectives of the study, and after agreeing, they signed the informed consent form. The study protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of FCT-UNESP under CAAE number: 88504718.0.0000.5402. For this, in only one meeting, an initial evaluation was made in order to identify and characterize the patients. Four questionnaires were then applied: the Brazilian Association of Research Companies (ABEP) Questionnaire for the evaluation of socioeconomic level, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Barrier Scale for Cardiac Rehabilitation (EBRC). Barriers were considered as the primary end point and correlations with the population profile as secondary outcomes.