PhD student at Aarhus University Kathrine Hald has just received a research grant from the Central Denmark Region. She will examine whether extended heart rehabilitation for socially disadvantaged people works in the long term.

2016.03.29 | Ida Kellemann Thomsen

PhD student Kathrine Hald heads a new project that will document whether the specific extended heart rehabilitation for socially disadvantaged people has the desired effect. She has received a donation of DKK 500,000 from the Central Denmark Region's Research Foundation.

Since 1 January 2016, PhD student Kathrine Hald has headed a new project that will document whether the specific extended heart rehabilitation for socially disadvantaged people has the desired effect. She has now received financial assistance for this following a donation of DKK 500,000 from the Central Denmark Region's Research Foundation.

"The socially disadvantaged do not benefit from normal rehabilitation in the same way as other heart patients. This is where extended heart rehabilitation helps in the short term. But as far as we can see, no one has yet examined whether extended heart rehabilitation makes a difference for socially disadvantaged people in the longer term. We would therefore like to find out how the patients who participated in the extended rehabilitation initiative in the early 00s have got on," says Project Manager Kathrine Hald.

Good prospects for heart patients

So far it looks as if the extended rehabilitation has had a significant effect on the health of socially disadvantaged patients. And Kathrine Hald is also ready to predict what the results will show:

"The presumption is that the extended rehabilitation initiative puts the socially disadvantaged in a better situation compared to standard efforts. The question we need to answer is to what degree. The PhD study means it is possible to see whether there is a reduction in the consumption of health and social services and whether the extended initiative reduces the risk of blood clots and reduces mortality up to ten years after the initiative took place," says the new PhD student.

The PhD project "Long-term follow-up on the effect of socially differentiated heart rehabilitation" is a collaboration between Aarhus University, Public Health and Quality Improvement, Aarhus University Hospital, the Central Denmark Region and the Centre for Inequality in Health at Aalborg University Hospital. The expected completion date for the PhD project is 2018.

Press release received from Søren Sander Rasmussen (soeren.sander@stab.rm.dk), Central Denmark Region.

Further information:

Project manager and PhD student Kathrine Hald

kathrine.hald@stab.rm.dk

Telephone: (+45) 4119 5670