Exploring the impact of sleep and stress on daily physical activity of cardiac patients: A preliminary study

Background: Current approaches to cardiac rehabilitation services tailoring are often based on patient demographics or readiness for behavior change. However, the success of interventions acceptance and improved adherence to recommendations could be much higher when considering and adapting to a patient’s lifestyle, such as sleep and stress. Aims: We aimed to analyze the potential associations between patient sleep and stress and daily moderate-intensity activity in patients with cardiovascular disease and to gain experience on the methods to collect and analyze a combination of qualitative and quantitative data. Methods: Patients with cardiovascular disease enrolled for an outpatient cardiac rehabilitation program were assessed at the study baseline regarding sociodemographic, clinical profile, and perceived level of stress. To collect daily physical activity and sleep data, all participants had two-week long diaries. Collected data was analyzed through correlation analysis, linear regression, and one-way ANOVA analysis. Results: The mean age of the participants (n =11) was 67.3 ± 9.6 years old. The patients were mainly male (82 %), mar-ried (91 %), and having at least one comorbid disease (64 %). The results of the analysis revealed that the night sleep duration is associated with moderate-intensity physical activity [F(1,6) =7.417, p =0.034]. Stress was not associated with patients’ moderate-intensity daily physical activity. Conclusion: The outcomes of the study can support the development of e-health and home-based interventions design and strategies to promote adherence to physical activity. Tailoring an intervention to a daily behavioral pattern of a pa-tient, such as sleep, can support the planning of the physical activity in a form to be easier accepted by the patient. This finding emphasizes the need for further investigation of the association with a larger population sample and the use of objective physical activity and sleep-related measure instruments.