ArticleOpen heart
Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation improves exercise capacity and health-related quality of life in people with atrial fibrillation: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised and non-randomised trials.
Article in Open heart. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effect of Exercise Training with Consideration of Potential Moderating Variables in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Sports medicine - open · 2025Pooled it
- Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for adults with atrial fibrillation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Resistance is not futile: a systematic review of the benefits, mechanisms and safety of resistance training in people with heart failure.Heart failure reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Guideline
- 2023 ACC/AHA/ACCP/HRS Guideline for the Diagnosis and Management of Atrial Fibrillation: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Joint Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines.Journal of the American College of Cardiology · 2024Guideline
- Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for adults after heart valve surgery.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Effect of High-Intensity Interval Training in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2022Trial
- Article
- Integrating digital health and remote monitoring: emerging trends in cardiac rehabilitation research for chronic heart failure.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2026Article
- Cardiac rehabilitation in atrial fibrillation: a protocol for a Danish survey and registry-based study (PRIME-AF).BMJ open · 2025Article
- Atrial fibrillation and primary care prevention and rehabilitation - a feasibility study.Pilot and feasibility studies · 2025Article
- Lifestyle and risk factor modification in atrial fibrillation: a European Heart Rhythm Association survey.Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology · 2025Article
- Article
- Impact of cardiac rehabilitation exercise frequency on exercise capacity in patients with coronary artery disease: a retrospective study.The Libyan journal of medicine · 2024Article
- Article
- Is breathing frequency a potential means for monitoring exercise intensity in people with atrial fibrillation and coronary heart disease when heart rate is mitigated?European journal of applied physiology · 2024Observational
- Review
- Long-Term Follow-Up of HRQoL up to Six Years after Outpatient Phase-II Cardiac Rehabilitation.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Efficacy of physical exercise on the physical ability, cardiac function and cardiopulmonary fitness of patients with atrial fibrillation: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2024Review
- Cardiac telerehabilitation: current status and future perspectives.Netherlands heart journal : monthly journal of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology and the Netherlands Heart Foundation · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study was to undertake a contemporary review of the impact of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) targeted at patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Methods: We conducted searches of PubMED, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library of Controlled Trials (up until 30 November 2017) using key terms related to exercise-based CR and AF. Randomised and non-randomised controlled trials were included if they compared the effects of an exercise-based CR intervention to a no exercise or usual care control group. Meta-analyses of outcomes were conducted where appropriate. Results: The nine randomised trials included 959 (483 exercise-based CR vs 476 controls) patients with various types of AF. Compared with control, pooled analysis showed no difference in all-cause mortality (risk ratio (RR) 1.08, 95% CI 0.77 to 1.53, p=0.64) following exercise-based CR. However, there were improvements in health-related quality of life (mean SF-36 mental component score (MCS): 4.00, 95% CI 0.26 to 7.74; p=0.04 and mean SF-36 physical component score: 1.82, 95% CI 0.06 to 3.59; p=0.04) and exercise capacity (mean peak VO Conclusions: Exercise capacity, cardiac function, symptom burden and health-related quality of life were improved with exercise-based CR in the short term (up to 6 months) targeted at patients with AF. However, high-quality multicentre randomised trials are needed to clarify the impact of exercise-based CR on key patient and health system outcomes (including health-related quality of life, mortality, hospitalisation and costs) and how these effects may vary across AF subtypes.
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