Development, implementation and evaluation of a social media-based cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention programme for patients with coronary heart disease in China: a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Access to cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention to help people recover from a heart attack remains low in China. This thesis evaluated a novel cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention programme delivered using the popular social media platform WeChat, for patients with heart disease in Shanghai. Compared with usual care, the programme resulted in improved exercise capacity, better knowledge of heart disease, increased adherence to medication and lower blood pressure and cholesterol.