Conclusions Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation is effective at reducing important clinical outcomes in patients with coronary heart disease .
While our analysis was constrained by the quality of included trials and missing information about intervention components , there appears to be little differential effect of variations in exercise intervention , particularly on mortality outcomes .
Background While the clinical benefits of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation are well established , there is extensive variation in the interventions used within these trials .
It is unknown whether variations in individual components of these exercise interventions provide different relative contributions to overall clinical outcomes .
This study aims to systematic ally examine the relationship between individual components of the exercise intervention in cardiac rehabilitation ( such as intensity and frequency ) and clinical outcomes for people with coronary heart disease .
Rehabilitation after myocardial infarction. A controlled study.
The effects of a rehabilitation programme  one year after myocardial infa rct ion ( MI ) were investigated in 171 patients under 65 years of age . These patients were allocated at r and om to rehabilitation and control groups before discharge from hospital . The groups were comparable with regard to age , sex and clinical data . The programme included physical exercise , counselling of patients and relatives , and social measures over a 3-month period during the convalescent stage . One year after MI patients in the rehabilitation group showed lower systolic blood pressure at rest and lower diastolic pressure on submaximal exercise than controls . No differences were found with regard to mean work capacity , days off work , return to work , psychological status , and underst and ing of the illness . At 12 months all patients were less physically and socially active than before MI , they were more dependent on their relatives than before , and they had poor underst and ing of their illness
Conclusions Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation is effective at reducing important clinical outcomes in patients with coronary heart disease .
While our analysis was constrained by the quality of included trials and missing information about intervention components , there appears to be little differential effect of variations in exercise intervention , particularly on mortality outcomes .
Background While the clinical benefits of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation are well established , there is extensive variation in the interventions used within these trials .
It is unknown whether variations in individual components of these exercise interventions provide different relative contributions to overall clinical outcomes .
This study aims to systematic ally examine the relationship between individual components of the exercise intervention in cardiac rehabilitation ( such as intensity and frequency ) and clinical outcomes for people with coronary heart disease .