IJCS | Volume 31, Nº6, November / December 2018

623 Table 1 - Baseline clinical and anthropometric characteristics of the conventional and virtual reality rehabilitation groups (CRG and VRG, respectively) expressed as mean ± standard deviation or absolute and percent value Characteristics CRG n = 12 % VRG n = 14 % p value Age (years) 63.75 ± 8.65 63.21 ± 8.27 0.8734 Weight (kg) 78.48 ± 16.86 72.43 ± 10.69 0.2785 Height (m) 1.629 ± 0.08 1.635 ± 0.079 0.8598 BMI (kg/m 2 ) 29.38 ± 4.80 27.02 ± 3.19 0.1491 Sex (m/f) 6/6 50/50 12/2 85.71/14.28 0.0492 Medications n % / 95% CI n % / 95% CI Antihypertensive agents 11 91.66 / 0.64-0.98 12 85.31 / 0.6-0.95 0.6358 Antiplatelet drugs 9 75 / 0.46 – 0.91 9 64.28 / 0.38 – 0.83 0.5551 Hypoglycemic agents 2 16.66 / 0.04 – 0.44 2 14.28 / 0.04 – 0.39 0.8668 Lipid-lowering drugs 8 66.66 / 0.39 – 0.86 10 71.42 / 0.45-0.88 0.7931 Beta-blockers 10 83.33 / 0.55 – 0.95 8 57.14 / 0.32-0.78 0.1492 Concomitant diseases n % / 95% CI n % / 95% CI SAH 11 91.66 / 0.64 – 0.98 13 92.85 / 0.68-0.98 0.9096 Diabetes mellitus 4 33.33 / 0.13 – 0.60 4 28.57/ 0.11-0.54 0.7931 AMI 8 66.66 / 0.39 – 0.86 6 42.85 / 0.21 – 0.67 0.2247 BMI: body mass index; m: male; f: female; n: number of individuals; CI: confidence interval; SAH: systemic arterial hypertension; AMI: acute myocardial infarction. Statistical tests: chi-square test to compare proportions, and nonpaired Student t test to compare continuous variables. Silva et al. Virtual rehabilitation for individuals with heart disease Int J Cardiovasc Sci. 2018;31(6)619-629 Original Article of normal distribution or Wilcoxon test for non-normal distribution variables. Intergroup comparisons were performed by use of absolute variation before and after the interventions, and nonpaired Student t test or Mann Whitney test were used according to data distribution. The magnitude of the differences between groups was described by calculating the effect size, using Cohen’s d. The effect sizes considered were as follows: small (d≤0.2), medium (d = 0.5), and large (d ≥ 0.8). Continuous variables were expressed as mean and standard deviation or median and interquartile range, according to normal data distribution. Categorical variables were expressed as absolute and percentage values with their respective confidence intervals. The significance level adopted was 5%. Results Clinical and anthropometric data Table 1 shows the clinical and anthropometric data of the individuals assessed, whose mean age was 63.46 ± 8.12 years, most of whom were of the male sex. There was no significant difference between groups regarding age and anthropometry. Systemic arterial hypertension was the major comorbidity. Anti-hypertensives were the most frequently used medication. Body composition Table 2 shows the baseline and final body composition of both groups. The VRG showed a significant difference regarding the increase in body fat percentage and in fat weight, in addition to a decrease in basal metabolic rate and total water, while the CRG showed no significant difference. Waist circumference did not significantly differ between CRG and VRG. Table 3 compares the absolute variation in body composition between the groups, evidencing significant differences regarding body fat percentage and fat weight, which were higher in the VRG, while total water was significantly lower in the VRG than in the CRG. The other variables showed no significant difference. The effect size