In a nutshell
This paper provided an overview of cardiac rehabilitation for people with heart disease.
Some background
Cardiac rehabilitation involves activities done to improve the condition of heart disease. Activities such as exercise, psychological intervention, and patient education all form a part of cardiac rehabilitation.
Methods & findings
6 reviews of different types of cardiac rehabilitation methods were studied. These reviews analyzed the results from many different clinical trials.
There were 2 reviews on exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation. In the first review, patients who exercised had an 18% reduction in mortality risk compared to patients who did not exercise. This was for up to 12 months follow-up. After 12 months, patients who exercised had a 13% reduced overall mortality risk compared to patients who did not exercise. In the second review, after 12 months, patients who exercised had a 12% reduced mortality than patients who did not exercise. Exercise reduced the risk of overall hospitalization by 25% up to 12 months follow-up. Exercise was also found to improve the quality of living based on a patient questionnaire.
A review of 24 trials found that psychological interventions reduced mortality risk by 11%. Psychological intervention reduced risk of death from heart-related causes by 20%.
A review of 13 trials on patient education found that patient education did not make a difference in mortality.
One review compared cardiac rehabilitation performed at home or at a center. There was no difference in mortality up to 12 months whether patients received rehabilitation at home or at a center.
A review studied how to improve patient uptake and adherence to cardiac rehabilitation. Motivational letters and gender-specific programs improved patient uptake of cardiac rehabilitation. Having appointments earlier after discharge also improved patient uptake of cardiac rehabilitation. Having a structured nurse or therapist-led program improved uptake of cardiac rehabilitation.
The bottom line
The authors concluded that exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation is effective and safe in the management of patients with heart disease.
The fine print
These reviews looked at different trials, thus there might be inconsistencies in data causing bias in results.
What’s next?
Talk to your doctor about receiving exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation.
Published By :
International Journal of Cardiology
Date :
Nov 11, 2014
