Healthier Hearts – For Life: A Partnership To Bring Cardiac Rehab To Kids
It’s a simple, but powerful proposition: exercise is medicine. Canada’s first paediatric cardiac rehabilitation program, recently launched at SickKids, puts that idea into practice for patients born with congenital heart disease.1 in 100 babies are born with some kind of congenital heart defect. Currently, in Ontario, the vast majority – over 85% – come to SickKids for surgery. And the vast majority of these patients survive. That’s a huge success story.
But what about life after surgery? These children’s parents face a dilemma: “Kids should be active. But I’m afraid my kid’s heart is too fragile for physical activity.” That concern is reinforced by current published guidelines on sports participation for patients with congenital heart disease (CHD), which mainly present restrictions. In consequence, young patients who’ve had surgery, or have ongoing complex heart issues, often lead sedentary lives – which leads to obesity, diabetes, and poor quality of life.
The opportunity was cardiac rehab for kids – and the Cardiac Health Foundation, Cardiac Kids, and Bike2Play have partnered with SickKids to make it happen. In most provinces, government funding covers adult rehab. For the principals at the Cardiac Health Foundation, establishing and funding a paediatric cardiac rehab program fills a significant gap. As Barb Kennedy, Executive Director, Cardiac Health Foundation, and Leo DelZotto, their Board President, put it, “Our mission – ‘Prevention, Education & Cardiac Rehabilitation’ – has come full circle, from supporting Dr. Terry Kavanagh’s pioneer work in establishing cardiac rehab for adults across Canada 50 years ago, to now working with The Hospital for Sick Children to support cardiac rehab for kids and adolescents.”
“The opportunity was cardiac rehab for kids.”
In a brand new Exercise Medicine Room in the Labatt Family Heart Centre, Dr. Barbara Cifra and her team will deliver exercise and lifestyle coaching, based on each child’s condition and fitness level. New physiologic assessment techniques will be developed and validated, as will techniques for activity tracking in children. The impact of exercise and lifestyle counselling will be measured. When we know which strategies work best, we’ll share our knowledge beyond SickKids, in support of a long-term goal: clinical care that incorporates exercise as standard of care for patients across Canada.
The impact of this initiative will be to turn a restrictive mindset on its head. It will empower kids with CHD to participate in the physical activities they can do, instead of telling them what they can’t. Our objective is to make sure patients with CHD are active kids – who turn into lifelong healthy, active adults.
