Research
Mixed
For heart failure treatment, diuretics are more effective than exercise interventions in reducing mortality.
If you have heart failure, taking prescribed diuretics is more effective than exercise for preventing death. However, exercise is still safe and recommended as part of your overall care plan, as it does not appear to cause harm and may improve functional capacity.
ModerateRefutesMEDIUM confidence
Diuretics were more effective than exercise (0.24, 0.04 to 0.85)... in heart failure.
Why this rating
Statistically significant difference favoring diuretics, but wide credible intervals indicate uncertainty.
Source
Comparative effectiveness of exercise and drug interventions on mortality outcomes: metaepidemiological study
Huseyin Naci et al. · British Journal of Sports Medicine · 2015
DOI 10.1136/bjsports-2015-f5577rep
Meta-analysis · 305 studiesCited 201×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- For secondary prevention of coronary heart disease, exercise interventions provide mortality benefits statistically equivalent to standard drug therapies (statins, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, antiplatelets).Moderate
- For prediabetes prevention, there is no statistically detectable difference in mortality outcomes between exercise interventions and drug therapies.Moderate
- For stroke rehabilitation, exercise interventions are more effective than anticoagulant or antiplatelet drug therapies in reducing mortality.Limited
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