Abstract
Exercise is fundamental to cardiopulmonary rehabilitation. Self-efficacy (SE) for exercise is an important predictor of exercise initiation and maintenance and SE for activities of daily living (ADL) is a variable related to independent living. The purpose of this research was to compare changes over rehabilitation in SE for exercise and ADL, and the 6-minute walk test in cardiac (CR) and pulmonary (PR) rehabilitation patients. A repeated-measures analysis assessed the change in task, coping, and scheduling SE for exercise and ADL in 84 PR and 147 CR patients, pre and post-rehabilitation. An additional repeated-measures analysis assessed the change in 6-minute walk by disease type. Task, coping, and scheduling SE for ADL increased significantly with rehabilitation and overall CR patients had better scores than PR patients. There was a significant disease type by 6-minute walk test interaction, with the CR patients showing a greater increase in walk distances from pre to post-rehabilitation than PR patients. Stronger correlations between SE and 6-minute walk test were observed in CR patients compared to PR patients, and SE for ADL was more strongly correlated to the 6-minute walk test than SE for exercise. Overall, CR patients seem to have greater confidence than PR patients for performing elemental aspects of tasks, coping with barriers, and scheduling exercise and ADL. Likewise, CR patients tend to improve more with rehabilitation than PR patients on the 6-minute walk test.Acknowledgments: Grey Nuns Cardiac Rehabilitation Staff, and the Caritas Centre for Lung Health Staff