The Málaga Clinic promotes physical exercise against Heart Failure

The Virgen de la Victoria University Clinical Hospital has joined the commemoration of World Heart Failure Day with a day focused on physical exercise, rehabilitation, and self-care as therapeutic pillars to improve the quality of life of patients.

Under the motto "Exercise and self-care in heart failure", the hospital complex organized a technical and participatory meeting together with the APAM --Association of Anticoagulated and Coronary Patients of Málaga--, involving professionals from different areas related to the care of this cardiovascular disease.

The initiative has focused on cardiac rehabilitation as an essential tool to improve the prognosis of a disease that already affects 2-3% of the general population, a percentage that rises to 15% among those over 75 years old. Moreover, heart failure represents 2.5% of Spain's health expenditure.

Currently, the Clinical University attends to more than 1,500 patients a year in its Heart Failure Unit and promotes adapted physical activity programs to reduce hospital readmissions and promote the autonomy of those affected.

Multidisciplinary care and prevention

The hospital has a specific care structure integrated by the Heart Failure Unit and the Internal Medicine service, with seven weekly specialized nursing consultations and five medical consultations.

Specialists have highlighted the importance of a multidisciplinary approach due to the high clinical complexity and comorbidity associated with this disease, whose mortality in Andalusia reaches 16%.

During the day, attendees participated in various practical workshops aimed at empowering patients and their caregivers. Among the activities developed were functional assessment tests, walking tests, respiratory exercises, physical warm-up, nutritional evaluation, and training in home self-control through the measurement of constants such as blood pressure, pulse, and heart rate.

The head of the Heart Failure Unit at the center, cardiologist José Manuel Pinilla, emphasized that "cardiac rehabilitation is fundamental to improve symptoms and reduce admissions, but it is still not widely extended." In this regard, he pointed out that one of the main goals is that "patients lose the fear of exercise and see it as part of their medication."

With this initiative, the hospital in Málaga strengthens its commitment to integrating healthy habits and supervised exercise into the usual treatment of cardiovascular diseases, promoting greater active participation of the patient in managing their health.