Nationwide Survey of Japanese Cardiac Rehabilitation Training Facilities During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Outbreak

Keisuke Kida; Miho Nishitani-Yokoyama; Shogo Oishi; Yuji Kono; Kentaro Kamiya; Takuya Kishi; Koichi Node; Shigeru Makita; Yutaka Kimura; Japanese Association of Cardiac Rehabilitation (JACR) Public Relations Committee

doi:10.1253/circrep.CR-21-0042

Nationwide Survey of Japanese Cardiac Rehabilitation Training Facilities During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Outbreak

Circ Rep. 2021 May 27;3(6):311-315. doi: 10.1253/circrep.CR-21-0042.

Authors

Keisuke Kida¹, Miho Nishitani-Yokoyama², Shogo Oishi³, Yuji Kono⁴, Kentaro Kamiya⁵, Takuya Kishi⁶, Koichi Node⁷, Shigeru Makita⁸, Yutaka Kimura⁹; Japanese Association of Cardiac Rehabilitation (JACR) Public Relations Committee

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacology, St. Marianna University School of Medicine Kawasaki Japan.
² Department of Cardiovascular Biology and Medicine, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine Tokyo Japan.
³ Department of Cardiology, Himeji Cardiovascular Center Himeji Japan.
⁴ Department of Rehabilitation, Fujita Health University Hospital Toyoake Japan.
⁵ Department of Rehabilitation, School of Allied Health Sciences, Kitasato University Sagamihara Japan.
⁶ Department of Graduate School of Medicine (Cardiology), International University of Health and Welfare Okawa Japan.
⁷ Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Saga University Saga Japan.
⁸ Department of Cardiac Rehabilitation, Saitama Medical University International Medical Center Hidaka Japan.
⁹ Department of Health Science, Kansai Medical University Hirakata Japan.

Abstract

Background: Since the reporting of a cluster outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in sports gyms, the Japanese Association of Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) shared a common understanding of the importance of preventing patients and healthcare providers from contracting COVID-19. This questionnaire survey aimed to clarify the status of CR in Japan during the COVID-19 outbreak. Methods and Results: An online questionnaire survey was conducted in 37 Japanese CR training facilities after the national declaration of a state of emergency in 7 prefectures. Among these facilities, 70% suspended group ambulatory CR and 43% suspended cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPX). In contrast, all facilities maintained individual inpatient CR. Of the 37 facilities, 95% required CR staff to wear a surgical mask during CR. In contrast, 50% of facilities did not require patients to wear a surgical mask during CR. Cardiac telerehabilitation was only conducted by a limited number of facilities (8%), because this method was still under development. In our survey, 30% of the facilities not providing cardiac telerehabilitation had specific plans for its future use. Conclusions: Our data demonstrate that ambulatory CR and CPX were suspended to avoid the spread of COVID-19. In the future, we need to consider CR resumption and develop new technologies for cardiovascular patients, including cardiac telerehabilitation.

Keywords: 3Cs; Ambulatory cardiac rehabilitation; Cardiac telerehabilitation.