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Updated: Jun 6, 2026

A Novel Digital Platform for a Monitored Home-based Cardiac Rehabilitation Program
Published on: April 19, 2019
A home-based exercise program improves heart rate variability and functional capacity among postmenopausal women with
Fu-Chih Lai1, Shih-Ting Tu, Chi-Hung Huang
1College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan.
Aims:
To determine whether a home-based exercise program is able to increase functional capacity (FC) and reduce heart rate variability (HRV) in postmenopausal women with coronary heart disease.
Background:
Regular exercise training has been shown to improve both FC and HRV. However, those studies were conducted within institutional training programs, and few have included women.
Methods:
Thirty-two postmenopausal women were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group with 16 participants in each group. Those in the experimental group underwent home-based exercise training, 3 times a week for 8 weeks. On the first and final week, each participant's HRV was measured, and their FC was evaluated using a 6-minute walking test.
Findings:
After 8 weeks, the FC of those who had undergone the home-based exercise program showed a significant improvement compared with subjects in the control group (P = .001). The total power (ms2), high-frequency (ms2), and low-frequency (ms2) indexes of HRV were also significantly improved over control values.
Conclusion:
In postmenopausal women with coronary heart disease, a home-based exercise program appears able to improve FC and HRV.
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