Program to support return to work after cardiological rehabilitation

The multicentre randomized controlled trial AmPULS is examining the effectiveness of a program to support occupational reintegration after cardiac follow-up rehabilitation. The research project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs as part of the rehapro federal funding program (https://www.modellvorhaben-rehapro.de). Cardiac rehabilitants with an increased risk of unsuccessful return to work are identified during follow-up rehabilitation in six participating rehabilitation facilities in a screening process and invited to participate in the study. After informed consent has been given, randomization takes place in the intervention or control arm of the study. Participants in the intervention arm receive telephone reintegration support with at least three telephone contacts from the social services of the intervention clinics Klinik am See in Rüdersdorf in Brandenburg and Mühlenbergklinik in Bad-Malente in Schleswig-Holstein following the cardiac follow-up rehabilitation. During the telephone reintegration support, the social service assesses the need for further support and prepares a one-week second rehabilitation phase (MBOR week), which is then carried out in the two intervention clinics and includes modules of medically and vocationally oriented rehabilitation. In addition to the collection of routine rehabilitation data by the clinics, digital questionnaires are used to collect data from participants at the end of the follow-up rehabilitation and 12 months after the follow-up rehabilitation. The primary target criterion is the rate of employable persons at the 12-month follow-up. Secondary target criteria include stable employment (at least four weeks without incapacity for work), the length of time until the first return to work, subjective ability to work, health-related quality of life, cardiac anxiety and subjective well-being.