Cardiac Rehabilitation for Young People (CardioActive)
Participant type
Overview
This study is no longer looking for new participants but is still ongoing.
CardioActive is a cardiac rehabilitation programme for children
and
young people. It aims to help your child adjust to living with
a heart condition. While cardiac rehabilitation programmes are not
currently offered to children and young people in the UK, research has
shown the benefits of children and young people with heart conditions
participating in these programmes.
Summary
What is the study about?
Across the world, about 13.8 million children and young people (under the age of 20) have a childhood heart condition.
These young people face challenges which impact their ability to function, their future employment, and their progression into independent adulthood.
41% of young people with heart conditions experience significant difficulties adjusting to their heart condition and approximately 30% experience clinically significant anxiety or depression.
What are you trying to find out?
The purpose of this research is to evaluate a cardiac rehabilitation programme for children and young people who have heart problems. This research will also assess if it possible to run this programme in cardiology services, and provide information for future research on the programme. Specifically, the research will compare usual treatment within cardiology outpatient services to usual treatment
PLUS cardiac rehabilitation.
What does taking part involve?
This study is no longer looking for new participants but is still ongoing.
To compare the CardioActive programme, we randomly allocated people into one of two groups:
- Group 1: Usual care under cardiology services
- Group 2: Usual care under cardiology services PLUS the CardioActive programme
In the current CardioActive programme, the young person will receive help with their heart condition using exercise, education, and mental wellbeing support. The programme will consist of six sessions, lasting 90 minutes to cover exercise, education and mental health support in each session.
- Exercise will be structured to support the understanding of their heart condition and improve their health.
- Educational aspects will cover ways that their lifestyle can be changed or managed to support their condition.
- Mental wellbeing is designed to develop confidence in exercising and living with a heart condition.
Participants from both groups will be asked to take part in four follow up visits with the study team to complete questionnaires, walking tests and physical activity monitoring. Those in the CardioActive group will be asked to participate in interviews or focus groups to evaluate the intervention.
What did the project look like?
Stage One (months 1-19) commenced in September 2022.
Project set up, ethical approval, development of the CardioActive programme manual, PPI groups, qualitative interviews, and staff training.
Stage Two (months 19-28) commenced in March 2024.
Participant recruitment, programme delivery, end of treatment and follow-up data collection.
Stage Three (months 28-36) commenced in December 2024.
Data cleaning and analysis, project write-up, and dissemination.
How can I find out more?
You can find out more information about this study by visiting the ADePT research unit's project page here.
This study is no longer looking for new participants but is still ongoing.
However, if you have questions for the research team, click the button below to email the research team:
Collaborators
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