Bridging the Gap: Implementing cardiac rehabilitation programmes in pakistan's healthcare system

Abstract

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a secondary prevention
programme aimed at reducing the mortality and
frequency of recurrent cardiac events and contributes to
improvement in quality of life of the patients suffering
from cardiovascular diseases (CVD). While the healthcare
system around the world has revolutionized, provision of
CR services is still lacking in its implementation. According
to statistics, < 54% of the countries actually provide CR
and this percentage drops at an alarming rate of about
8% and 28% in low income and lower-middle income countries
(LICs/LMICs) respectively, even though the need of this
programme has increased exponentially. Pakistan is one
of the lower-middle income countries facing many challenges in
implementing successful healthcare programmes. One
such field which is neglected and often overlooked is
cardiac rehabilitation. Establishing and promoting CR
programmes in low-middle income countries is crucial as
it can alleviate the financial strain of prolonged hospital
stays and help in prevention from dependency on
families. This review highlights the dilemma regarding
lack of CR programmes in Pakistan, as well as factors
affecting the utilization and applicability of this
programme.
Keywords: Cardiac rehabilitation, cardiovascular
diseases, exercise training, primary prevention, secondary
prevention.