Impact of Pt Knowledge on TM Performance

The primary outcome of the Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) program at St Joseph's Hospital is change in performance on an exercise stress test. Patients complete an exercise stress test when they enter and exit the CR program. An improvement in stress test performance reflects an improvement in physical fitness, but is also associated with better long-term health outcomes (e.g. reducing the chance of having to go back to hospitalI? lower likelihood of dying). While physical fitness has the strongest impact on stress test performance, other factors can also affect the test result. We expect that informing patients about their baseline stress test result will improve their exit treadmill performance. This intervention may be a simple and cost-effective method of increasing motivation among patients to do their best on the exit test