Age-Related Improvements in Peak Cardiorespiratory Fitness among Coronary Heart Disease Patients Following Cardiac Rehabilitation

While cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2peak) can be improved with exercise and training, it is unclear whether older age is associated with an attenuated VO2peak improvement among patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) who complete a cardiac rehabilitation (CR) program. A retrospective review of patient demographics and VO2peak data from January 2012 to December 2017 was performed. CAD patients were included if they had successfully completed the supervised 6-month CR program (>75% of exercise prescription) and two VO2peak assessments (respiratory exchange ratio (RER) >1.0). Among all patients, there was an improvement in VO2peak from 21.1 ± 6.3 mL/kg/min to 26.5 ± 7.9 mL/kg/min (+26% ΔVO2peak). Patients in the younger age category (age category 1: 30–39 years old) tended to have a greater percent of relative VO2peak improvement when compared to all other age categories (e.g., adults 50 years of age and older). In the regression analysis, VO2peak improvement was associated with younger age (β = −0.286, p < 0.0001), after adjustment for the baseline VO2peak (β = −0.456, p < 0.0001), final prescribed exercise speed at CR program completion (β = 0.254, p < 0.0001), body mass index (β = −0.172, p < 0.0001), and male sex (β = 0.153, p < 0.0001). Nonetheless, the study findings indicate that older adults who complete CR may be able to obtain clinically relevant improvements in VO2peak of greater than 20%, and therefore, should be referred for CR.