We are studying how cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is used by people in rural and urban areas of Tennessee who have had a procedure called a transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI).
CR is an important way to prevent further or secondary heart disease. Most CR programs happen outside of the hospital and offer programs like physical therapy, occupational therapy (helping relearn how to perform daily tasks), lessons on healthy eating, and mental health support. CR has been shown to help people avoid going back to the hospital after a heart event, lower the chances of death for people with heart disease, and improve their quality of life. Even though we know people in rural areas tend to have worse heart health and do not join CR programs as much, we don’t know enough about the reasons why people in Tennessee’s rural areas avoid joining CR or sticking to the heart health plans they learn in those classes. Also, we don’t understand how CR affects things like hospital visits or survival rates for people in rural areas compared to people in cities.
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We are looking at people who attended the CR program at the University of Tennessee Medical Center (UTMC) from 2021-2025. We aim to determine if there are differences in how rural and urban individuals utilize CR and whether factors such as age, race, or health literacy hinder their ability to use CR.
We also want to understand how CR works for sexual and gender minority people in rural areas of Tennessee, which is a group that has not been studied much. The results of this project will help us find better ways to get people in rural Tennessee to start and finish CR. It will also help improve how CR programs are offered in areas of Tennessee where there is not a lot of medical support.
TAVI CR Contact Form
TAVI Cardiac Rehabilitation Contact Form
Abstracts resulting from this work
Publications
Tran, P., Fogelson, B., Sorey, A., Heidel, R., & Baljepally, R. (2024). An Examination of Geographic Proximity to Outpatient Cardiac Rehabilitation in Rural versus Urban Tennessee Counties. Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing. [In Press]
Tran, P. M., Fogelson, B., Heidel, R. E., & Baljepally, R. (2025). A Comparison of Rural and Urban Differences in Geographic Proximity to Outpatient Stroke Rehabilitation Services in Tennessee. Journal of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation and prevention, 45(1), 65–71. https://doi.org/10.1097/HCR.0000000000000898
Presentations
Tran, P., Fogelson, B., Heidel, R., & Baljepally, R. Rural/urban comparisons of outpatient stroke rehabilitation proximity. A poster presentation at the 47th Annual Rural Health Conference. May 7-10, 2024. New Orleans, LA, USA