Cardiac rehabilitation improves quality of life, functional capacity, and heart failure-related hospitalizations in patients with HF, but remains underused despite guideline recommendations.
Does cardiac rehabilitation improve outcomes in patients with heart failure?
Despite strong guideline recommendations and proven benefits in quality of life and hospitalization reduction, cardiac rehabilitation remains underused in heart failure patients.
Cardiac rehabilitation is defined as a multidisciplinary program that includes exercise training, cardiac risk factor modification, psychosocial assessment, and outcomes assessment. Exercise training and other components of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) are safe and beneficial and result in significant improvements in quality of life, functional capacity, exercise performance, and heart failure (HF)-related hospitalizations in patients with HF. Despite outcome benefits, cost-effectiveness, and strong practice guideline recommendations, CR remains underused. Clinicians, health care leaders, and payers should prioritize incorporating CR as part of the standard of care for patients with HF.
“The AHA and ACC both recommend CR for patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction because it appears to reduce the risk of hospital readmission among patients with HF by 20% to 30%.”
Bozkurt et al. (Mon,) conducted a review in Heart Failure. Cardiac rehabilitation was evaluated. Cardiac rehabilitation improves quality of life, functional capacity, and heart failure-related hospitalizations in patients with HF, but remains underused despite guideline recommendations.