Exercise-Based Telerehabilitation for Heart Failure Patients Declining Outpatient Rehabilitation—A Randomized Controlled Trial

ABSTRACT Purpose Cardiac rehabilitation participation rates are low despite strong recommendations, and many chronic heart failure patients remain physically inactive. Rural living, long travel distance, costs, age, and frailty might be factors explaining this. To increase cardiac rehabilitation uptake, we designed an exercise-based randomized controlled telerehabilitation trial enabling chronic heart failure patients unable or unwilling to participate in outpatient cardiac rehabilitation to exercise at home. Aim was to evaluate the long-term effects of telerehabilitation on physical activity levels. Methods and results Chronic heart failure patients ( n = 61) with reduced (≤40%), mildly reduced (41%–49%), or preserved ejection fraction (≥50%) were randomized (1:1) to telerehabilitation ( n = 31) with an initial 3-month group-based high-intensity exercise telerehabilitation program or control ( n = 30), with regular follow-up visits over a 2-yr period. All participants attended a “Living with heart failure” course. Outcomes were measures of physical activity, peak oxygen uptake, 6-min walk test distance, quality of life, morbidity, and mortality. We found no significant differences between groups for long-term changes in moderate to vigorous activity (MVPA) or peak oxygen uptake from baseline to the 2-yr follow-up. Nor quality of life differed between groups, but both groups had significant within-group improvements in score on the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire ( P = 0.000) and improvement in EQ-5D visual analog scale score was significant ( P = 0.05) in the telerehabilitation group. Conclusions Telerehabilitation performed as home-based real-time high-intensity exercise sessions provided by videoconferencing for participants unable or unwilling to participate in standard outpatient cardiac rehabilitation did not affect long-term physical activity levels or physical capacity as expected. Still, a positive effect on health-related quality of life was seen in both groups.