Evidence-informed development of women-focused cardiac rehabilitation education

Background: Despite their differential risk factor burden, context and often different forms of heart disease, cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs generally do not provide women with needed secondary prevention information specific to them.

Objective: to co-design evidence-informed, theory-based comprehensive women-focused education, building from Health e-University’s Cardiac College for CR.

Methods: A multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder steering committee (N=18) oversaw the four-phase development of the women-focused curriculum. Phase 1 involved a literature review on women’s CR information needs and preferences, phase 2 a CR program needs assessment, phase 3 content development (including determining content and mode, assigning experts to create the content, plain language review and translation), and phase 4 will comprise evaluation and implementation. In phase 2, a focus group was conducted with Canadian CR providers; it was analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s iterative approach.

Results: Nineteen providers participated in the focus group, with four themes emerging: current status of education, challenges to delivering women-focused education, delivery modes and topical resources. Results were consistent with those from our related global survey, supporting saturation of themes. Co-designed educational materials included 19 videos. These were organized across 5 webpages in English and French, specific to tests and treatments, exercise, diet, psychosocial well-being, and self-management. Twelve corresponding session slide decks with notes for clinicians were created, to support program delivery in CR flexibly.

Conclusion: While further evaluation is underway, these open-access CR education resources will be disseminated for implementation, to support women in reducing their risk of cardiovascular sequelae.