In-person Versus Home-based Exercise Training On Quality Of Life In Coronary Heart Disease Patients

PURPOSE. Patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) have a reduced quality of life, which could be counteracted by exercise. However, it is unclear if in-person or home-based exercise are equally effective. Therefore, we aimed to examine the effects of in-person versus home-based versus no exercise training on quality of life in patients with CHD. METHODS. A systematic search on randomized controlled trials assessing the effects of exercise training on quality of life (i.e., total, physical and mental component scores) in CHD patients was performed from inception to June 2023. Studies comparing in-person, home-based or no exercise were included. Data was extracted (intervention setting, sample size, pre- and post-intervention values) and change-from-baseline values were estimated and standardized. Due to the large heterogeneity, a network meta-analysis using random effects was performed. RESULTS. In total, 18 studies were included, of which 14 studies reported separate scores for physical and mental quality of life. In-person exercise significantly improved all quality-of-life scores compared to no exercise (Table). In addition, in-person exercise was more effective than home-based exercise for the total and mental component scores. Finally, we found a smaller but non-significant positive effect of home-based exercise on all quality-of-life scores compared to no exercise. CONCLUSION. Our findings suggest that in-person exercise training improves quality of life in CHD patients. Future studies should explore explanations for the different findings between in-person and home-based exercise. Table. - League table with the pooled standardized mean differences (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals comparing in-person, home-based and no exercise interventions on quality of life. Quality of life - Total score In-person 0.17 (-0.15; 0.49) 0.60 (0.33; 0.87) 0.29 (0.04; 0.55) Home 0.13 (-0.14; 0.39) 0.51 (0.28; 0.74) 0.22 (-0.01; 0.45) nEX Quality of life - Physical component score In-person 0.16 (-0.22; 0.54) 0.32 (-0.01; 0.66) 0.11 (-0.20; 0.42) Home 0.22 (-0.08; 0.52) 0.32 (0.03; 0.61) 0.21 (-0.07; 0.48) nEX Quality of life - Mental component score In-person 0.21 (-0.11; 0.54) 0.53 (0.25; 0.81) 0.29 (0.02; 0.55) Home 0.10 (-0.16; 0.37) 0.45 (0.21; 0.69) 0.16 (-0.07; 0.40) nEX EAB has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No [101064851].