Research

Mixed

Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation significantly reduces cardiovascular mortality and hospital admissions in patients with coronary heart disease compared to usual care without exercise.

If you have coronary heart disease, participating in a structured exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program is a Class I recommended treatment that significantly lowers your risk of dying from heart causes and being hospitalized. It is safe, even for high-risk patients, and benefits include improved quality of life. Seek out a program, preferably supervised, as soon as possible after your cardiac event.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Exercise-based CR reduced cardiovascular mortality compared with no exercise control (27 trials; risk ratio (RR) 0.74, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.86). The overall risk of hospital admissions was reduced with CR (15 trials; RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.70 to 0.96)
Lindsey Anderson et al. · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · 2016

Why this rating

Based on 63 RCTs with 14,486 participants, though GRADE quality was moderate to low due to reporting issues.

Source

Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for coronary heart disease

Lindsey Anderson et al. · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · 2016

Meta-analysis · 63 studiesCited 523×
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