Affecting factors on physical activity in patients after cardiac surgery

The heart and blood vessels make up the cardiovascular system. Heart and blood vessel problems known as cardiovascular diseases (CVD) include coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and congenital heart disease. The most common cause of mortality and disability worldwide is cardiovascular disease (CVD), and this trend is likely to continue. The cardiovascular system is susceptible to a wide range of issues, including endocarditis, rheumatic heart disease, and irregularities in the conduction system. Although CVD may directly result from a variety of etiologies, including rheumatic fever that causes valvular heart disease and emboli in patients with atrial fibrillation that result in ischemic stroke, addressing risk factors associated with the development of atherosclerosis is crucial because it is a common factor in the pathophysiology of CVD. Drug treatment, physical activity, good eating, and heart surgery are the mainstays of CVD treatment. As the number of ways to treat CVD has grown quickly, cardiac surgery has become less invasive, and deaths from CVD have gone down. The time after surgery can be hard. Physical and mental problems and symptoms, such as pain, anxiety, depression, the inability to move, breathing problems, not getting enough sleep, and feeling tired, can lower the quality of life and make it harder for the body to work. Adequate, regular physical exercise lowers the risk of subsequent cardiac events, hospitalizations, symptoms, sadness, anxiety, and enhances quality of life. Physical activity after cardiac surgery helps individuals recover, whereas inactivity can impair recovery. Even though physical exercise following heart surgery is crucial for avoiding negative outcomes, postoperative patient participation in physical activity has typically been insufficient. This study was conducted at Ibin AL-Bitar hospital for cardiac surgery. 300 patients after cardiac surgery (185=Male and 115=Female) range of their ages (18-75) years voluntarily participated in the study. Participants were selected from surgical wards in the Ibin Al-Bitar hospital for cardiac surgery during first week postoperative. Patients were evaluated with Short-Form International Physical Activity Questionnaire (SF-IPAQ), Short Form-36 health survey (SF-36), Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), pain catastrophizing scale (PCS), Tampa scale for kinesiophobia (TSK-11), Dyspnea-12 questionnaire (D-12), Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), cardiac depression scale (CDS), fatigue severity scale (FSS), 6-minute walking test (6MWT) are used as outcome measurements. All of the patients completed scales and tests during the first week postoperatively. In statistical analysis, there was a statistically significant association between the SF-IPAQ score and type of physical activity, day of assessment after surgery, VAS score (at rest and at activity), PCS, PSQI, FSS, TSK-11, D-12, CDS, 6MWT and physical functioning subscale of SF-36, P-value < 0.001. In this study we aimed to determine affecting factors on physical activity after cardiac surgery. We found that fatigue, kinesiophobia, sleep disorders, depression, dyspnea, pain and pain catastrophizing negatively affected physical activity in post-surgery cardiac patients. Also, we observed that improvement in functional capacities and qualities of lives lead to enhanced in the physical activities. December 2022, 81 pages. Keywords: Cardiovascular diseases, cardiac surgery, physical activity, pain, functional capacity, kinesiophobia, fatigue, quality of life.