The effects of early rehabilitation on functional exercise tolerance in decompensated heart failure patients: Results of a multicenter randomized controlled trial (ERIC-HF study).
Bruno Delgado, André Novo, Ivo Lopes and 6 others
PMID 35313751WHAT IT FOUND
Hospitalized heart failure patients who did aerobic training walked 59 meters further at discharge than those receiving usual care.
This improvement held up after accounting for age and other factors. The program was safe and feasible to run on regular cardiology wards.
Key findings
01Patients in the exercise group walked 59 meters further on the six-minute walk test at discharge compared to the control group, a difference that remained significant after adjusting for age, gender, heart failure severity, heart function, and length of hospital stay.
02The exercise group reported significantly less breathlessness during daily activities at discharge than the control group, and this benefit persisted even after adjusting for baseline scores and other clinical factors.
03While the exercise group had slightly higher independence scores for daily tasks at discharge, this difference was no longer significant once researchers adjusted for baseline independence and other clinical factors.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Outcomes were measured only at discharge, so it is unknown if the benefits in walking distance and breathlessness persist after the patient goes home. The number of exercise sessions varied between patients because they had different lengths of hospital stay and sometimes missed sessions for diagnostic or therapeutic exams. There was an imbalance in the number of patients between the two groups, with more patients in the exercise group, which occurred because randomization blocks were not fully used at every center.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest and received no financial support for the research, authorship, or publication of this article.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume the exercise program significantly improved functional independence in daily tasks. While the exercise group had higher independence scores at discharge, this difference disappeared once researchers adjusted for the patients' baseline independence levels and other clinical factors. The clear benefits were to walking distance and breathlessness, not independence.