Problem, Purpose, & Research Questions

Problem

Research has identified that women only represent 27% of participants in cardiac related research studies (American College of Cardiology, 2013). This is concerning because in research done by Midence, Arthur, Oh, Stewart, and Grace (2016), only 39% of women were utilizing cardiac rehab (CR) as opposed to 45% of men. However, as mentioned above, research has found that when women do participate in CR, they often have even better outcomes than their male counterparts. There is a gap in research when it comes to women and cardiac related issues, and in order to have a better understanding of the issues, and to provide greater health outcomes for women, it is important for research to focus on women.

Purpose

The purpose of this RCT study will be to identify, if a woman focused CR program has a significant positive impact on cardiac indicators for women who have suffered a coronary event compared to those who attend a regular CR program.

Research Question

The central question guiding this research is: Will a woman focused CR have greater adherence and greater outcomes for women than regular CR? The indicators of CR that this research would specifically look at would be, lipid profile, blood pressure, diabetes and weight management, quality of life (QoL), and physical activity levels, seeking improvement in most, if not all domains (Sanderson, Southard, & Oldridge, 2004).