Comparing the Impact of Center-based and Home-based Cardiac Rehabilitation on Outcomes in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Abstract

Objective

Home-based cardiac rehabilitation and hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation have had different results in improving quality of life, negative psychology, and blood lipids. The objective of this study was to systematically compare the effectiveness of home-based and hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation in patients with coronary artery disease.

Methods

RCTs related to application of home-based and center-based cardiac rehabilitation in patients with coronary heart disease were searched in multiple e-databases in English and Chinese from January 2000 to March 2025. Two researchers independently screened the articles and extracted the data. Cochrane5.1.0 manual was used to evaluate the quality of the included articles, and RevMan5.4 software was used for Meta analysis.

Results

A total of 1808 patients were included in 14 articles. Meta-analysis showed that cardiac rehabilitation at home and in hospital improved peak oxygen uptake [MD = 0.30, 95% CI (-0.37, 0.97), P=0.38] and systolic blood pressure [MD=1.10, 95% CI (-1.01, 3.21), P=0.31], diastolic blood pressure [MD=0.94, 95% CI(-1.74, 3.62), P=0.49], triglyceride [MD=-0.03,95%CI(-0.15,0.10), P=0.65],fasting glucose [MD=0.15, 95%CI (-0.17,0.47), P=0.35], quality of life and psychological status(P＞0.05), BMI (P＞0.05). Total cholesterol in the hospital-based rehabilitation group was better than that in the home-based rehabilitation group [MD=0.11, 95% CI (0.01,0.21), P=0.03], however the results were not stable.

Conclusions

Compared to hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation, home-based cardiac rehabilitation also improves the risk factors in patients with coronary artery disease. However, whether hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation is better than home-based cardiac rehabilitation for total cholesterol needs further validation.

No Patient or Public Contribution.