Goal attainment in a randomized controlled trial of rehabilitation after XXXX .

@entity1 @entity583
PURPOSE: Goal setting is an established strategy in health behavior change programs although its usefulness remains uncertain. The authors investigate the validity of attainment of a @entity1 -identified goal as an outcome measure in cardiac rehabilitation after @entity583 . METHODS: On entry into a randomized controlled trial of cardiac rehabilitation after an acute @entity583 , @entity1 identified one activity that, if and when attained, would reflect their perception of a successful recovery. @entity1 reported whether they had attained their goal and the time of goal attainment. This was then related to trial outcomes that included generic and specific health-related quality of life and percent predicted exercise tolerance. RESULTS: Goals identified by 180 of the 201 (89.6%) @entity1 , were attained by 51.5% at 8 weeks and by 86.5% at 12 months. At the end of the 8-week intervention, there was a substantial trend for fewer rehabilitation than usual care @entity1 to have attained their identified goal (P < 0.06), although rehabilitation @entity1 demonstrated greater improvement in specific health-related quality of life and exercise tolerance than usual care @entity1 (P < 0.05). Among @entity1 who identified a recreational physical activity goal (26.7%), significantly fewer (P < 0.007) rehabilitation than usual care @entity1 had attained their goal at the end of the intervention with no differences in improvement in outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Although improvement in outcomes was greater in rehabilitation @entity1 than usual care @entity1 at 8 weeks, goal attainment, particularly for the recreational physical activity goal, was greater among usual care @entity1 . The validity of self-identified activity goal attainment as a measure of the efficacy of cardiac rehabilitation is unclear and might give misleading results.
