Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on the Rehabilitation Effect of Different Intensity Exercise on the Patients with Cardiovascular Diseases

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease is a common disease with high prevalence, disability, and mortality. Exercise therapy can improve cardiac functional reserve and life quality of patients, but the benefits of different exercise intensities for cardiovascular patients are still controversial. In this study, literature search and meta-analysis were used to explore the effect of 2 intensities of exercise on the rehabilitation effect of cardiovascular patients. METHODS: We searched Embase, Wiley online library, PubMed, Science Direct, and Clinicaltrials to look for randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) versus moderate continuous training (MCT). After screening the inclusion criteria for the literature and assessing the risk of bias, a software analysis was performed using the R language toolkit to obtain forest plots and funnel maps. RESULTS: 10 articles were included in this study into the quantitative analysis, and 520 patients participated in the study; meta-analysis results showed that after HIIT intervention, the VO2 peak index of patients was higher than that of the MCT group (MD = 1.39, 95% CI (0.10, 2.68), Z = 2.12, P = 0.0344), the peak heart rate HR peak was higher than that of the MCT training (MD = 7.71, 95% CI (5.12, 10.30), Z = 5.84, P < 0.0001), the respiratory exchange rate (maximum RER) was higher than that of the MCT training (MD = 0.02, 95% CI (0.00, 0.04), Z = 2.36, P = 0.0184), and the quality of life was higher than that of the MCT training (MD = 0.39, 95% CI (0.07, 0.71), Z = 2.40, P = 0.0165). Discussion. Compared with moderate continuous training, high intensity interval training is more conducive to improve the cardiopulmonary function of cardiovascular patients and improve their physical life quality.