Authors

Abstract

Quality of life (QOL) is a vast multidimensional concept related to health and health care. As QOL decreases after health diseases, the aim of most medical health care systems and cardiac rehabilitation centers are to enhance QOL of heart disease patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of continuous and interval exercise training on quality of life of heart patients after coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). For this purpose, 20 POST CABG patients (18 men, 2 women with mean age: 57.05±8.91 and mean BMI: 26.98±3.20 kg/m2) were divided into aerobic continues training (30 – 60 min. and intensity of 70 – 85% of maximum HR, n=10) and aerobic interval training (28-44 min. and intensity of 75 – 90% of maximum HR, n=10). They performed the exercise training three times a week for 8 weeks. QOL was measured by Persian version of SF-36 questioner. Paired t test was used to analyze the data. SPSS version 16 was used to analyze all statistics. Results showed that both aerobic interval and continuous exercise programs had a beneficial significant effect on QOL and its dimensions of physical function (continuous P<0.001, interval p<0.001), body pain (continuous p=0.016, interval p=0.003), mental health (continuous p=0.018, interval p=0.004), vitality (continuous p=0.003, interval p=0.020), social function (continuous p=0.037, interval p=0.032) and general health (continuous p=0.020, interval p=0.018). It can be concluded that both selected interval and continuous exercise programs improved QOL dimensions that are the most important factors in cardiac rehabilitation programs after surgery. Therefore, both types of selected exercise training are recommended in cardiac rehabilitation centers to rehabilitate CABG patients.

Keywords