Impact of a mobile cycling application on cardiac patients’ cycling behavior and enjoyment

Abstract

Cardiac rehabilitation at home has been proven to be a valuable alternative for supervised center-based cardiac rehabilitation in certain stages of the recovery and prevention process. Many existing tele-rehabilitation solutions monitor activity through step counting. However, cycling is an underexplored activity in this context. Many people like cycling, and cycling is part of center-based rehabilitation programs. We developed a custom mobile application that guides cardiac patients during cycling to exercise in a safe and enjoyable manner on scenic routes or routes in their neighborhood. In this paper, we present the results of a 4- week field study in which we evaluated the mobile application with 14 cardiac patients. Our study showed that cardiac patients perceive cycling with our system as a recreational and enjoyable activity, are motivated to make longer bike tours than before using the application, and are able to reach the recommended weekly amount of physical activity for cardiac patients.