Improving attendance at cardiac rehabilitation: a randomized controlled trial

INTERVENTION: 1. Letter of invitation to cardiac rehabilitation designed with theory based wording 2. Supportive leaflet to accompany letter of invitation to cardiac rehabilitation designed with theory based wording 3. The control was the previously used letter of invitation to cardiac rehabilitation CONDITION: Coronary heart disease. Specifically post myocardial infarction and post cardiac surgery. ; Circulatory System ; Coronary heart disease PRIMARY OUTCOME: Attendance at least one session of a Phase III CR programme SECONDARY OUTCOME: 1. To identify the factors associated with CR attendance; 2. The independent measures of CR attendance were determined by a baseline self‐report questionnaire which covered socio‐demographical and medical factors, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD) (Zigmond and Snaith, 1983), Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) scale (Blanchard et al, 2002; Blanchard et al, 2003) and Illness Perception questionnaire (Weinman et al. 1996) INCLUSION CRITERIA: Consecutive patients who were admitted with myocardial infarction (MI) or post cardiac surgery between January 2007 and December 2007 at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary were invited to participate in the study if they were referred to the cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programme in the city of Aberdeen or the area of Aberdeenshire.