EFFECT OF EXERCISE TRAINING ON QUALITY-OF-LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC HEART-FAILURE

The effect of exercise training on quality of life and exercise capaci ty was studied in 67 patients with mild to moderate chronic heart fail ure (CHF; age: 65.6+/-8.3 years; left ventricular ejection fraction: 2 6.5+/-9.6%). Patients were randomly allocated to either a training gro up or to a control group. After intervention a significantly larger de crease in Feelings of Being Disabled (a subscale of the Heart Patients Psychological Questionnaire) and a significantly larger increase in t he Self-Assessment of General Well-Being (SAGWB) were observed in the training group. Exercise time and anaerobic threshold were increased i n the training group only. The increase in exercise time was related t o both Feelings of Being Disabled and SAGWB. We conclude that supervis ed exercise training improves both quality of life and exercise capaci ty and can be safely performed by chronic heart failure patients. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.