Cochrane Systematic Review

Title: Exercise‐based cardiac rehabilitation for adults with heart failure
Good to know: Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation does not reduce all-cause mortality (low certainty of evidence), but probably decreases the risk of all-cause hospital admissions compared to usual care (moderate certainty of evidence). In addition, participation in exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation likely improves health-related quality of life to a clinically relevant extent, as measured by the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (moderate certainty of evidence).
Limitations: Only two trials included patients with acute decompensated heart failure.
Evidence: Cochrane Review (publication in March 2024); inclusion of 60 studies with 8,728 participants; comparison between an exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (either exercise therapy alone or as part of comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation) and a control group without exercise (e.g., usual medical care), with a follow-up period of at least six months, to evaluate the effects of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation on mortality, hospital admissions, and health-related quality of life.