A longitudinal study of quality of life in patients with chronic heart failure following an exercise training program

Chronic heart failure (CHF) will become one of the greatest medical challenges during the next decades. This is especially true with regard to elderly patients. Besides medical diagnostics and drug therapy, efficient treatment of CHF must also include exercise training.

The purpose of our study was 1) to record health-related quality of life (QOL) in elderly patients with CHF and 2) to assess the efficacy of a training program, as well as to evaluate any changes detected during a six month follow-up.

In our non-randomized study, 116 patients, divided according to age into Group 1 (>70 years) and Group 2 (<70 years), took part in a 4-week training program.

There were differences in the clinical parameters and the QOL between the older and the younger patients both after 4 weeks and at the follow-up. After six months, however, the older patients again recorded having an inferior QOL to that of the younger patients.

Elderly patients can also benefit from physical exercise training, with improvement in clinical parameters and QOL. In order to maintain the subjectively improved QOL in the long term, however, continued special heart failure education and support is required.