Outcomes of electronic health interventions for patients with heart failure: a network meta-analysis

The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of different types of tele-interventions in improving exercise capacity and cardiac function in patients with heart failure.

We searched five databases from inception to September 2024 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of telerehabilitation in people with heart failure. The primary outcomes were 6‑min walk distance (6MWD) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). The secondary outcome was patient adherence to rehabilitation. We used Review Manager (RevMan) 5.4 and Stata 16.0 for the analyses.

Overall, 17 studies with a total of four telerehabilitation interventions were included in the final analysis. Network meta-analysis showed that remote monitoring (mean difference [MD] = 29.03 [7.94, 50.13]) and combined interventions (MD = 28.86 [4.85, 53.86]) were more effective than usual rehabilitation in improving 6MWD. Remote monitoring (MD = 2.45 [0.14, 4.76]) was superior to usual rehabilitation in improving LVEF. The surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) results showed that remote monitoring is the most effective way to improve the 6MWD (SUCRA = 71.7%) and LVEF (SUCRA = 76.3%) in patients with heart failure.

The results of this study indicate that remote cardiac rehabilitation is effective in improving heart function and enhancing exercise capacity in patients with heart failure. Based on our data and the accessibility of remote rehabilitation equipment, telemedicine may be a useful and significant way to increase patient participation in cardiac rehabilitation.