Maria, a post-doc with experience in exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation 

Maria Bäck is a physiotherapist and PhD who is now in Linköping at the Institution for Medicine and Health for six months as a post-doc.

Maria Bäck received her PhD at the Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Institute of Medicine at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg in November 2012. The title of the thesis was: “Exercise and physical activity in relation to kinesiophobia and cardiac risk markers in coronary artery disease”.

Maria has an interest and expertise in the field of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation from a holistic perspective, involving a bio-psycho-social perspective of health, including physiological as well as psychological effects of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation.
Maria´s thesis included four studies. Study I evaluated the effects of high-frequency exercise before and after an elective PCI. Study II examined the level of physical activity in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and investigated the association between physical activity and cardiac risk markers. Study III investigated the validity and reliability of the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia Heart, a brief questionnaire to detect kinesiophobia, in patients with CAD. Study IV described the occurrence of kinesiophobia in patients with CAD and the impact on kinesiophobia by clinical variables with an influence on rehabilitation outcomes.