What is the Current Scenario of Cardiac Rehabilitation in Brazil and Portugal?

What is the current scenario of cardiac rehabilitation in Brazil?

The scenario in Brazil is alarming. The number of documented CR programs is extremely insufficient in relation to the clinical need, and this is certainly harmful to the health of the Brazilian population with chronic heart diseases. Let’s look at the evidence: In a study published in 2020, Britto et al. estimated that, in Brazil, there is only 1 spot in a CR service for every 99 patients with ischemic heart disease, meaning that the availability is almost 3 times lower than that observed in another 32 countries evaluated (1 spot for every 32.7 patients). In another study that evaluated the worldwide availability and density of CR, this type of service was identified in 111 out of 203 countries, and the global ratio of spots for each patient with ischemic heart disease was 1 to 11, which demonstrates a sad reality.

Unpublished data on the availability of CR identified the operation of only 59 CR programs in Brazil; most of them (71%) were concentrated in the South (20%) and Southeast (51%) Regions of the country, which demonstrates not only the scarcity, but also the heterogeneity in the national distribution. In relation to available spots, the situation is even more concentrated, since 69% of them are in the Southeast Region, which exposes the large gap in spots and services in other Brazilian regions. Based on these data, the authors also calculated the national availability of CR spots for care after hospital discharge. The number of spots to provide care for these patients after a cardiovascular event represented less than 2% of the need.

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