Impact of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation in patients with heart failure (ExTraMATCH II) on mortality and hospitalisation: an individual patient data meta-analysis of randomised trials

Author(s)
Taylor, Rod S
Walker, Sarah
Smart, Neil A
Piepoli, Massimo F
Warren, Fiona C
Ciani, Oriana
O'Connor, Christopher
Whellan, David
Keteyian, Steven J
Coats, Andrew
Davos, Constantinos H
Dalal, Hasnain M
Dracup, Kathleen
Evangelista, Lorraine
Jolly, Kate
Myers, Jonathan
McKelvie, Robert S
Nilsson, Birgitta B
Passino, Claudio
Witham, Miles D
Yeh, Gloria Y
Zwisler, Ann-Dorthe O
Publication Date
2018-12
Abstract
Aims: To undertake an individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis to assess the impact of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (ExCR) in patients with heart failure (HF) on mortality and hospitalisation, and differential effects of ExCR according to patient characteristics: age, sex, ethnicity, New York Heart Association functional class, ischaemic aetiology, ejection fraction, and exercise capacity. Methods and results: Randomised trials of exercise training for at least 3 weeks compared with no exercise control with 6-month follow-up or longer, providing IPD time to event on mortality or hospitalisation (all-cause or HF-specific). IPD were combined into a single dataset. We used Cox proportional hazards models to investigate the effect of ExCR and the interactions between ExCR and participant characteristics. We used both two-stage random effects and one-stage fixed effect models. IPD were obtained from 18 trials including 3912 patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction. Compared to control, there was no statistically significant difference in pooled time to event estimates in favour of ExCR although confidence intervals (CIs) were wide [all-cause mortality: hazard ratio (HR) 0.83, 95% CI 0.67–1.04; HF-specific mortality: HR 0.84, 95% CI 0.49–1.46; all-cause hospitalisation: HR 0.90, 95% CI 0.76–1.06; and HF-specific hospitalisation: HR 0.98, 95% CI 0.72–1.35]. No strong evidence was found of differential intervention effects across patient characteristics. Conclusion: Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation did not have a significant effect on the risk of mortality and hospitalisation in HF with reduced ejection fraction. However, uncertainty around effect estimates precludes drawing definitive conclusions.
Citation
European Journal of Heart Failure, 20(12), p. 1735-1743
ISSN
1879-0844
1388-9842
Link
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Rights
CC0 1.0 Universal
Title
Impact of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation in patients with heart failure (ExTraMATCH II) on mortality and hospitalisation: an individual patient data meta-analysis of randomised trials
Type of document
Journal Article
Entity Type
Publication

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