Heartbeat: exercise improves quality of life after acute myocardial infarction

Although, the primary goal in patients with an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is to reduce mortality and major adverse events, patient centred measures such as long-term health-related quality of life (HRQoL) also are important. The benefits of exercise for mortality reduction after AMI are well known but the effect on HRQoL has received less attention. In this issue of Heart , Hurdus and colleagues1 examined the temporal association of HRQoL with physical activity levels and cardiac rehabilitation in 4570 patients at 30 days, 6 and 12 months after AMI. Both cardiac rehabilitation and self-reported physical activity of at least 150 min/week were positively associated in improvements in HRQoL at each time point, with an additive effect for physical activity even in those receiving cardiac rehabilitation (figure 1). Figure 1 Health-related quality of life trajectories of patients with acute myocardial infarction according to their attendance at cardiac rehabilitation and/or self-reported physical activity of ≥150 min/week. EQ-VAS, EuroQol 5-Visual Analogue Scale In an editorial, Taylor and Dalal2 point out that ‘When we ask our patients why they want to participate in cardiac rehabilitation (CR), the response that we invariably hear is that they do so …