The Effects of Interventions on Health-Related Quality of Life of People Living With Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review.
Amineh Rashidi, Lisa Whitehead, Lisa Newson and 4 others
PMID 40296441WHAT IT FOUND
Cardiac rehabilitation generally improved health-related quality of life in adults with cardiovascular disease, especially physical well-being.
Mental health evidence was less consistent, and social benefits were rarely measured.
Key findings
01Adults receiving cardiac rehabilitation generally improved overall health-related quality of life compared with standard care.
02Physical well-being improved in most studies; in one study, home cardiac rehabilitation scored 51.2 against 48.6 for the hospital group.
03Mental health scores improved in four studies, but some follow-up improvements did not reach significance; four studies did not report social well-being, and most other social comparisons showed no group difference.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The review could not combine studies numerically because populations, cardiac conditions, outcome measures, comparators, and follow-up times differed. It excluded people with stroke and heart failure, so it does not address two common cardiovascular groups. The cardiac rehabilitation programmes mixed exercise, education, telephone monitoring, counselling, and usual care, so the review cannot say which component produced the improvement. Many studies gave limited or no information on who delivered the intervention. Outcome measures were generic quality-of-life tools, not specific for cardiovascular disease. Five studies did not report overall HRQL, and four did not report social well-being. The paper gives inconsistent study counts: 13 studies were retained, while other passages say 14 included randomised trials. The review states that 27% of studies did not include control groups, which limits before-and-after comparison.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that a specific cardiac rehabilitation component caused the quality-of-life gain. The included programmes mixed exercise, education, telephone monitoring, counselling, and usual care, and the review did not separate their effects.