Research

Mixed

Participation in exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) for patients with coronary heart disease significantly reduces cardiovascular mortality, recurrent myocardial infarction, and hospitalizations compared to no-exercise control, while also improving health-related quality of life.

If you have coronary heart disease, participating in a structured exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program is one of the most effective steps you can take to lower your risk of dying from heart causes, having another heart attack, or being hospitalized. You do not need to be an elite athlete; programs vary in intensity and setting (home or center), but the key is consistent, supervised physical activity combined with education. This is recommended alongside modern medical treatments, not instead of them.

WeakSupportsHIGH confidence
This review confirms that participation in exercise-based CR by patients with coronary heart disease receiving contemporary medical management reduces cardiovascular mortality, recurrent cardiac events, and hospitalizations and provides additional evidence supporting the improvement in HRQoL and the cost-effectiveness of CR.
Grace Dibben et al. · European Heart Journal · 2023

Why this rating

Based on 85 RCTs with 23,430 participants, using random-effects meta-analysis and GRADE assessment (High/Moderate certainty for key outcomes).

Source

Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for coronary heart disease: a meta-analysis

Grace Dibben et al. · European Heart Journal · 2023

DOI 10.1093/eurheartj/ehac747

Meta-analysis · 85 studiesCited 430×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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