Standard Cardiac Rehabilitation

Patient education and comprehensive risk factor management can improve quality of life, reduce AF burden, and lower hospitalisation risk. In Denmark, only 16% of AF patients receive patient education within one year of AF onset, well below the recommended standard of at least 50%. Standard cardiac rehabilitation lasts 6 to 12 weeks depending on patient needs and complexity. If baseline potassium is already normal in the standard care arm, the starting MRA dose may remain unchanged. Despite supporting evidence, CR referral rates in AF remain critically low. Patient-reported needs and patient preferences for specific CR components remain poorly characterised in the AF population. Residual confounding from psychosocial variables such as depression and social support, and details of cardiac rehabilitation participation, were not captured in this study. The expected standard-care renin unsuppression rate used for sample-size planning was derived from a North American observational study at 12 months. In Denmark and elsewhere, CR has largely shifted from hospital settings to the primary care and community sector without AF-specific guidance, creating implementation gaps. Cardiac rehabil…