An Examination of Geographic Proximity to Outpatient Cardiac Rehabilitation in Rural Versus Urban Tennessee Counties.

BACKGROUND

Although outpatient cardiac rehabilitation (OCR) is associated with improved outcomes post myocardial infarction (MI), authors of limited US studies report OCR travel distance/time estimates with fewer providing rural-urban comparisons.

OBJECTIVE

We examined travel distance/time to the closest OCR facility for each Tennessee county.

METHODS

We identified n = 61 Tennessee OCR facilities through a Tennessee Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation list and a data scraping process using cardiac rehabilitation-related keywords. County-level mean travel distance/time to the closest OCR facility was determined using geospatial analysis. We conducted Kruskal-Wallis tests to examine whether mean travel distance/time varied by rural/urban county status and also by MI hospitalization rate status (low, 0 to <33.33 percentile; medium, 33.33 to <66.66 percentile; high, ≥66.66 percentile).

RESULTS

Of Tennessee's 95 counties, 62.3% of facilities were in its 42 urban counties. Mean (SD) county-level travel distance to the closest OCR was 16.6 (10.0) miles, and mean (SD) county-level travel time was 27.9 (13.6) minutes. Travel distance/time did not significantly differ by rural/urban county status (rural: 15.4 miles, 28.9 minutes; urban: 12.9 miles, 23.2 minutes) or by MI hospitalization rate status (low: 10.4 miles, 19.6 minutes; medium: 14.5 miles, 24.1 minutes; high: 18.8 miles, 30.7 minutes).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings indicate that overall mean travel distance was around half an hour, but lack of OCR facilities in rural Tennessee counties did not correspond with significantly greater travel distance/time to OCR in rural versus urban counties. Additional efforts are warranted to help patients post-MI with actual or perceived high travel burden navigate personal and structural factors precluding OCR receipt.