Cardiac effects of exercise rehabilitation on quality of life, depression and anxiety in patients with heart failure patients

Exercise training has well documented beneficial effects in a variety of cardiac disorders. This study was designed to assess the effects of exercise on an exercise rehabilitation program on the quality of life, depression and anxiety in heart failure patients referred for cardiac rehabilitation.

In this clinical trial,65 patients aged 50-70 years with heart failure among patients who referred to Institute of Heart Rehabilitation of Isfahan were assigned randomly to two groups of experimental (n=33) and control (n=32). Subjects in the experimental group participated in a supervised 8-week aerobic training program of 30-45 min sessions (3 days per week on alternate days), while those in the control group received standard medical care and were not involved in any regular training program during this period. At the beginning and the end of the exercise rehabilitation program, the Beck Anxiety and Depression inventories and short form of quality of life questionnaire were fulfilled for the assessment of depression, anxiety and quality of life.

The scores of quality of life, depression and anxiety showed a significant improvement in experimental compared to control group after 8 weeks exercise rehabilitation (P=0.001).

It seems that an appropriate application of exercise rehabilitation program would improve the psychological status and quality of life in long-term maintenance chronic heart failure patients.