Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation reduces myocardial infarction and hospitalisation in coronary heart disease.
Systematic review of 107 randomised trials (26,886 adults with coronary heart disease) comparing exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation versus no exercise control. At short-term follow-up (6-12 months), exercise reduced myocardial infarction (RR 0.72), all-cause hospitalisation (RR 0.65), and likely reduced all-cause mortality (RR 0.86). Health-related quality of life improved across multiple domains, and eight economic studies confirmed cost-effectiveness.
What this changes
The finding has not established an approved change to our evidence assessment.
Source date: Sep 18, 2026 · Discovered: Sep 18, 2026 · Assessed: — · Research update
What it does not prove
- Limitations have not yet been verified. Read the primary source.
Extracted from supplied source material; model confidence is not a measured probability of correctness.
Study details
- Design
- Meta analysis
- Sample size
- 26,886
- Duration
- 6 months
- Population
- Adults with coronary heart disease (CHD), mostly post-MI or post-revascularisation; mean age 47–81 years. 78% of trials included women, who represented 17% of total participants overall.
- Primary outcome
- Mortality (all-cause and cardiovascular), fatal and non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI), revascularisation (CABG and PCI), and hospitalisation (all-cause and cardiovascular).
- Effect size
- Short-term follow-up (6–12 months): All-cause mortality RR 0.86 (95% CI 0.74–1.00, moderate-certainty); cardiovascular mortality RR 0.87 (95% CI 0.68–1.11, moderate-certainty); MI RR 0.72 (95% CI 0.54–0.95, high-certainty); CABG RR 1.00 (95% CI 0.78–1.28, high-certainty); PCI RR 0.86 (95% CI 0.65–1.13, moderate-certainty); all-cause hospitalisation RR 0.65 (95% CI 0.51–0.82, moderate-certainty); cardiovascular hospitalisation RR 0.80 (95% CI 0.35–1.82, low-certainty). Long-term follow-up (>12 months): exercise-based CR associated with reduced cardiovascular mortality and MI. HRQoL showed clinically meaningful increases across SF-36 subscales and EQ-5D scores up to 12 months. Eight economic evaluation studies showed exercise-based CR cost-effective.
- Significance
- Mixed
- Journal
- The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
- Published
- Sep 18, 2026
Funding: Funding support from University of Glasgow, UK (for GD and RST) and Radboud University Medical Centre, NL (for FdV, DT and NS). Past NIHR Cochrane Infrastructure funding to Cochrane Heart.
Conflicts: Not reported.
Sources
Primary source
- The Cochrane database of systematic reviews ↗Peer reviewed
Assessment history
9/24/2026 · SUPERSEDED: Source updated; assessment withdrawn pending review.
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