Improvement of worklife participation through vocationally oriented cardiac rehabilitation? Findings of a randomized control group study

Purpose: Although acute medical care of cardiac patients has clearly improved, vocational integration and vocational outlook of patients after MI and/or cardiac surgery did not improve substantially over the last few decades. This study is intended to evaluate a programme aimed at enhancing the return to work of cardiac rehabilitands. The programme is applied in addition to the usual rehabilitation programme and includes job-related interventions by the Social and Psychological Services as well as standardized application of the functional capacity evaluation (FCE). Methods: This prospective randomized controlled trial is intended to evaluate the effects of the intervention programme on return to work. 150 patients who received the job-related programme (the intervention group) were compared to 150 patients who received the usual rehabilitation interventions (the control group). The study includes cardiac patients insured under the workers' pension insurance scheme and not older than age 56. Before coming to the clinic they had been unable to work, and problems with their returning to work were anticipated. Exclusion criteria were heart surgery less than three months ago, a cardiac capacity below 75 Watt, and reduced left-ventricular function. Follow-up data collection was performed 12 months after rehabilitation using a mail questionnaire. Results: At the beginning of the rehabilitation programme, comparison of the groups showed no significant differences in biological, psychological and social variables. At 12-months follow-up, the data of 212 participants (70.6% of the participants) were available. Up to this time, 79.1% of the patients from the intervention group had returned to work, whereas in the control group only 62.9% had returned to work (chi(2) test, p < 0.05). Conclusion: The results of the 12-months follow-up underline the positive effects of a job-oriented rehabilitation programme for patients' return to work.