Fatigue Related Psychological Factors in Patients With Cardiovascular Diseases

Abstract

Background. The positive effects of exercise training in cardiovascular diseases are well known and used widely in cardiac rehabilitation. Evidences indicate that exercise improves physical activity and overall cardiorespiratory fitness. However, less is known about the relations of exercise training to psychological factors, like vital exhaustion and chronic fatigue as highly predictive risk-factors of myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death. The pathophysiological mechanisms are not yet well understood but fatigue might be partly related to disrupted cardiorespiratory values. Methods. Patients with ischemic cardiovascular diseases entered the study (n=227; mean age=63.30±9.89). All patients underwent both standard ergometric and psychological test procedures. In addition, 72 of these patients (mean age= 64.88±5.59) entered an exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program and were followed for three months. Results and Conclusions. Our results indicate the positive effects of rehabilitation on both cardiovascular and psychological fitness. In addition, we found strong associations between the ergometric and psychological factors. More specifically, the fatigue related psychological parameters were found to show significant associations with maximum systolic blood pressure during exercise, metabolic equivalent and maximum heart rate.