Patient education is a core component of cardiac rehabilitation program and a part of the consensus statement for Cardiac rehabilitation delivery model for low-resource settings. To our knowledge, there is little to no evidence regarding cardiac patient education implementation in sub–Saharan Africa, despite all the benefits and the urgent need for prevention in our settings.

To describe a patient education (PE) pilot project named “the Heart School” at Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar.

In this cross sectional study were included all patients addressed for a PE program. PE was delivered on weekly one-on-one sessions (Figure 1). Progression was assessed through self-evaluation scales with scores ranging from 0 to 10 administered before and after the program. Data analysis was performed with SPSS version 18 with a level of significance set at P<0.05.

45 patients benefited from this educational program. Coronary artery disease was the primary indication in 87% of cases. At the end of the program, there was a significant improvement in knowledge of the disease (4.5 vs. 7.4; P<0.001) and its treatment (4.7 vs. 6.8; P<0.001), as well as good practices of physical activity (4.5 vs. 7; P<0.001), cardioprotective diet (4.2 vs. 7; P<0.001) and motivation to change lifestyle (5.6 vs. 7.8; P<0.001).

Results from this pilot project were promising. However long-term follow up is necessary to better assess the sustainability of these results.