Use of heart rate monitors in cardiac rehabilitation

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Smart Heart: A Real-Time Monitoring System for Cardiac Rehab Patients

• IRAS ID

  296139

• Contact name

  Chelsea Batty

• Contact email

  chelsea.batty@wrexham.ac.uk

• Research summary

  Background: Heart rate monitoring is considered a crucial element of supervised exercise programmes within cardiac rehabilitation. Target heart rate ranges are established to guide individualised patient exercise intensities to ensure safe and effective exercise. Historically, the use of chest strap monitors have been used in cardiac rehabilitation programs. However, this can be labour intensive as staff often have limited time and limited funding to purchase multiple heart rate monitors that can be used for all patients in an exercise class, thus in Flintshire, subjective monitoring is used which does not always give an accurate picture of how hard patients are exercising. Furthermore, some patients can feel uncomfortable with staff fitting the chest strap in the company of others and private rooms aren’t always available.
  Therefore we propose that armband heart rate monitors could contribute to increased accuracy of heart rate monitoring in supervised exercise classes and the patients can fit them independently. The accuracy of arm band heart rate monitors has not yet been systematically assessed in patients with cardiovascular disease particularly in the context of cardiac rehab. A recent study (Goncalves et al., 2024) assessed the Polar sensewear armband heart rate monitor (the one we will be using) at monitoring stroke patients' physical activity intensity and compared it with a standard heart rate monitor and found differences between the time patients spent performing moderate and vigorous physical activity. The authors concluded further research needs to take place to establish which device is more appropriate. We would like to collect data from the polar verity sense armband heart rate monitors and assess their effectiveness in guiding patient’s exercise intensities.

• REC name

  Wales REC 6

• REC reference

  24/WA/0350

• Date of REC Opinion

  21 Nov 2024

• REC opinion

  Unfavourable Opinion