Prevention & lipidsCross-sectional study
Staffing, accepted indications, and dose of Phase II cardiac rehabilitation: country income class and time-based comparisons from the International Council of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation’s (International Council of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation's (ICCPR)) 2025 Audit Update
- Cross-sectional study
- REDCap survey
- international audit
Authors' conclusion
CR programs globally are offered by small, but multidisciplinary teams. They accept guideline-indicated patients, with applicable variation by context. Insufficient dose in one-quarter of countries underscores investment need.
Study context
- Population
- Phase II/post-discharge cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs globallyprograms from 90 countries
- Participants
- 1,505 participants
- Exposure
- Country income classes; 2025 vs 2016 Audit
- Outcome
- Multidisciplinary team size/composition, accepted cardiac and non-cardiac indications, and centre-based CR dose
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- CR team size, global
- median 7 (P25-P75=5-8)
- Team size, low-income countries (smaller; p<0.001)
- median=4
- Surgery accepted: low-income vs high-income (p<0.01)
- 0% vs 97%
- HF acceptance, 2016 vs 2025 Audit (p<0.001)
- 70% vs 87%
- Centre-based dose prescribed
- median 20 hours (P25-P75=12-30)
- Countries prescribing median ≥12 sessions/program
- 65 (72%)
- Sessions, upper-middle-income countries (more; p<0.001)
- median=24, P25-P75=12-36
- Dose did not differ meaningfully between Audits
- p=0.07
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Original publication
Staffing, accepted indications, and dose of Phase II cardiac rehabilitation: country income class and time-based comparisons from the International Council of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation’s (ICCPR) 2025 Audit Update. Eur J Prev Cardiol. Published 28 May 2026. doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwag292
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it