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Cardiac rehabilitation is a supervised programme that helps you recover after a heart attack, stent, heart surgery, or a diagnosis of angina or heart failure. It combines exercise, education, help with medicines, support with mood, and work on the things that raise risk. It reduces the chance of another cardiac event and of going back into hospital, and it improves quality of life. Programmes usually run two or three times a week for six to twelve weeks, and can be delivered at a centre, at home, or by a mix of the two. This page explains what to expect, then sets out the clinical standards and evidence behind it.
What cardiac rehabilitation is
Cardiac rehabilitation is a supervised programme that helps you recover after a heart attack, heart surgery, a stent or a diagnosis of heart failure or angina. It is not simply an exercise class. A programme combines supervised exercise, education about your heart condition, help with medicines, support with mood and stress, and practical work on the things that raise risk — smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, weight and alcohol.
The aim is twofold: to get you back to the life you had before, and to lower the chance of another cardiac event. Both are measurable, and both are supported by large bodies of trial evidence.
Who it is for
In Australia and the United Kingdom, programmes accept people after:
- a heart attack (myocardial infarction)
- a stent (percutaneous coronary intervention)
- bypass surgery or valve surgery
- a transcatheter valve procedure such as TAVI
- a diagnosis of stable angina or coronary artery disease
- a diagnosis of heart failure, including where an implantable device has been fitted
- a heart transplant, or implantation of a ventricular assist device
Referral is usually made in hospital before you go home, or by your general practitioner or cardiologist afterwards. If nobody has mentioned it to you, ask. Being missed is common, and it is not a sign that you do not need it.
The phases of a programme
| Phase | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 — inpatient | In hospital | Getting up and moving safely, breathing and circulation, reassurance, and the first conversation about what happens next. Referral to an outpatient programme should be made before discharge. |
| Phase 2 — outpatient | Typically from one to six weeks after the event | The main programme: supervised exercise, education and risk-factor work, usually one to three sessions a week for six to twelve weeks. |
| Phase 3 — long-term | After the programme ends | Continuing exercise independently or in a community group, with periodic review. This phase has no end point — it is the rest of your life. |
The older, rigid three-phase language has largely been replaced by a description of a continuous pathway, but the sequence is still useful for understanding where you are.
What happens at the first appointment
An assessment before you start. Expect it to take up to an hour and to cover more than exercise:
- Your history — what happened, what was done, what medicines you are on and whether you are taking them.
- A physical check — blood pressure, heart rate and rhythm, weight and waist, and your surgical wounds if you have them.
- An exercise test — usually a walking test such as the six-minute walk test or an incremental shuttle walk test. This sets your starting exercise level; it is not a pass or fail.
- Mood and anxiety — low mood and anxiety after a cardiac event are common and treatable, and they strongly predict whether people complete a programme.
- What matters to you — returning to work, driving, sex, gardening, carrying grandchildren, a particular hill. Say it out loud; the programme is built around it.
The exercise sessions
A session has a warm-up, a conditioning period, and a cool-down. The conditioning part mixes aerobic work — walking, cycling, stepping, arm work — with light resistance training for the major muscle groups.
Intensity is set so that you are working moderately hard: breathing faster, able to talk in short sentences but not to sing. Staff will ask you to rate your effort on a scale, and will check your heart rate, blood pressure and symptoms. A defibrillator is on site and staff are trained to use it.
Sessions usually run two to three times a week for six to twelve weeks, and you will be given something to do on the days in between. The home programme matters as much as the supervised sessions.
The rest of the programme
Exercise is the visible part. The components that do the quiet work are:
- Understanding your condition — what happened to your heart, what the procedure did, and what the warning signs of a further event are.
- Medicines — what each one is for, why the ones that feel like they do nothing are often the most important, and what to do about side effects other than stopping them.
- Risk factors — blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose, smoking, alcohol and weight, with targets and a plan rather than a lecture.
- Food — practical changes rather than a diet sheet.
- Mood, stress and sleep — including screening for depression and anxiety, and referral where it is needed.
- Getting back to life — driving, flying, work, and sex. All three are ordinary questions and staff expect them.
What it changes
For people with coronary heart disease, taking part in exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation reduces the risk of dying from cardiovascular causes, reduces the chance of a further heart attack, reduces hospital admissions, and improves quality of life.1 These are the findings of a Cochrane review of eighty-five trials involving more than twenty-three thousand people, and they are consistent across the previous versions of the same review.
For people with heart failure, programmes reduce hospital admissions and produce clinically meaningful gains in quality of life.2
What most people notice first is more everyday: walking further before stopping, less fear about exertion, and knowing what a symptom means.
How long it lasts, and what happens after
The supervised part is short. The benefit is not automatically permanent — fitness gained over eight weeks is lost over a similar period if activity stops. Every good programme finishes by handing you a plan for what you will keep doing, where, and how often, and by rechecking your risk factors.
In practical terms, the target most programmes work towards is at least 150 minutes a week of moderate activity, plus resistance work twice a week, continued indefinitely.
Common worries
“Is exercise safe after a heart attack?”
Supervised exercise in a cardiac rehabilitation setting has a very low rate of serious adverse events. The risk of remaining inactive is substantially higher than the risk of the programme.
“My chest still hurts from the operation.”
Sternal discomfort after bypass or valve surgery is expected and is not a reason to avoid exercise. Blanket restrictions such as a five-kilogram lifting limit are not evidence-based; progression is guided by your symptoms and the stability of the sternum rather than by the calendar.3 Tell staff about pain, clicking or grinding.
“I live too far away.”
Home-based and telephone-supported programmes produce comparable outcomes to centre-based programmes for people at low to moderate risk, and are an accepted alternative rather than a lesser option. This matters in Central Queensland, where distance is the commonest reason a programme is declined.
“I am too old, or too unfit, to start.”
Programmes are individually prescribed. Frailty and advanced age change what the programme looks like, not whether it is offered.
Warning signs
Part 1 · References
- Dibben G, Faulkner J, Oldridge N, Rees K, Thompson DR, Zwisler A-D, Taylor RS. Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for coronary heart disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2021;(11):CD001800.
- Molloy C, Long L, Mordi IR, et al. Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for adults with heart failure — 2023 Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Heart Fail 2023;25(12):2263–2273.
- Katijjahbe MA, Granger CL, Denehy L, et al. Standard restrictive sternal precautions and modified sternal precautions had similar effects in people after cardiac surgery via median sternotomy (‘SMART’ trial): a randomised trial. J Physiother 2018;64(2):97–106.
References are numbered in citation order (Vancouver/BMJ style) and were current at the time of writing. Guidelines are living documents — verify against the latest version before clinical use.
- Cardiorespiratory Rehabilitation — the combined heart and lung programme run at this clinic
- Pulmonary Rehabilitation — the equivalent programme for chronic lung disease
- Post-Myocardial Infarction — recovery after a heart attack
- Cardiac Surgery — bypass grafting, valve surgery and the referral that gets missed
- Prescribing Exercise from Test Results — turning a walking test into a training programme
- Six-Minute Walk Test — the field test most programmes use at entry and exit
Clinical evidence
Part 1 covers the same programme without the technical detail. What follows is the standards framework, the prescription and the evidence base, written for clinicians.
Standards and core components
Two documents govern contemporary practice in the jurisdictions this clinic draws from. In Australia, the Australian Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation Association published a 2026 update of the national core components of cardiovascular rehabilitation, replacing the 2014 statement.1,2 In the United Kingdom, the British Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation issued the fourth edition of its Standards and Core Components in 2023.3
The two converge. Both frame rehabilitation as part of lifelong cardiovascular health rather than a time-limited course, both place person-centred choice of setting and mode at the centre, and both widen eligibility beyond the post-infarct and post-revascularisation populations that historically filled programmes. The BACPR document retains six standards covering the service pathway from identification through to discharge and long-term management, with five core components describing what the participant should receive.3
| Core component | What it requires in practice |
|---|---|
| Health behaviour change and education | Structured, theory-informed behaviour-change support rather than information provision; delivered by staff with assessed competence. |
| Lifestyle risk-factor management | Physical activity and exercise, diet and body composition, and smoking cessation, each with measured baseline and outcome. |
| Psychosocial health | Routine screening for depression and anxiety at entry and exit, with a defined referral pathway. Distress is a determinant of uptake, adherence and prognosis, not a side issue. |
| Medical risk-factor management | Blood pressure, lipids, glycaemia and weight, with active support for adherence to guideline-directed therapy. |
| Long-term strategies | A documented transition plan, onward exercise options and scheduled review before discharge. |
The Australian statement is framed against the 2026 World Heart Federation roadmap, which defines a cardiovascular health programme as ongoing person-centred care encompassing lifestyle optimisation, clinical risk-factor management, psychosocial support and adherence to guideline-directed medical therapy.2,4
Referral, timing and uptake
Referral should be automatic and opt-out rather than clinician-initiated. The BACPR 2023 standards emphasise the earliest feasible commencement of all components, including exercise; the UK national average start time has historically been no earlier than six weeks, and the evidence base for earlier commencement has grown.3
Uptake remains the field’s central failure. It is systematically lower in women, in older adults, in people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and in rural and remote populations — the last of these being the dominant constraint in Central Queensland. A programme with excellent content and poor reach delivers less population benefit than a modest programme people can actually attend.
Assessment before exercise
The ACRA core components require an individualised initial assessment covering physical, psychological and social parameters.1,5 For the exercise component specifically, the CSANZ position statement on assessment and prescription of exercise in cardiac rehabilitation — endorsed by ACRA, the Heart Foundation, ESSA and the APA — is the operative Australian document.5
- Aerobic capacity. A field walking test is the practical standard: six-minute walk test, or an incremental shuttle walk test where a maximal, externally paced test is preferred. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing gives peak VO2 and ventilatory thresholds where available and is the reference method in heart failure and pre-transplant assessment.
- Strength. Sit-to-stand repetitions, grip dynamometry or a predicted one-repetition maximum from a submaximal load.
- Risk stratification. Left ventricular function, residual ischaemia, arrhythmia burden, revascularisation completeness, device presence and exercise-test response together determine supervision level and monitoring intensity.
- Psychosocial screening. A validated instrument at entry and exit. The Cardiac Depression Scale is cardiac-specific and appropriate at intake.
- Comorbidity. Diabetes, chronic kidney disease, peripheral arterial disease, musculoskeletal limitation and coexisting respiratory disease all change the prescription. Coexisting COPD is common and is the reason a proportion of this caseload is better served by a combined programme.
Exercise prescription
| Variable | Prescription |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Two to three supervised sessions per week, with home-based sessions on non-supervised days; total target at least five days per week of activity. |
| Intensity | Moderate continuous work at roughly 40–80% of heart rate reserve or peak VO2, or 11–14 on the 6–20 Borg scale. Where beta-blockade, atrial fibrillation or pacing invalidate heart rate, perceived exertion and the talk test govern. |
| Time | Twenty to sixty minutes of conditioning, progressing volume before intensity in deconditioned or frail participants. |
| Type | Aerobic work using large muscle groups, plus resistance training of the major groups at 40–70% of one-repetition maximum, one to three sets of eight to fifteen repetitions, two to three days per week. |
| Progression | By symptom response and rate of perceived exertion rather than by protocol week. Re-test at mid-point and at discharge. |
High-intensity interval training produces larger gains in peak VO2 than moderate continuous training in selected, stable, appropriately screened participants, and published guidance exists for its delivery and monitoring in clinical populations.6 It is an option within a programme, not a default, and it presumes adequate supervision, a stable substrate and a completed revascularisation.
Specific populations
| Population | What changes |
|---|---|
| Post-sternotomy | Progression by symptoms and sternal stability, not by a weight limit. The SMART trial found no signal of harm from modified compared with restrictive precautions.7 Screen for kinesiophobia: a patient told not to lift a kettle frequently lifts nothing at all. See Sternal Precautions. |
| Heart failure | Start lower, progress slower, and expect a longer programme. Monitor weight, orthopnoea and fluid status session to session. Interval formats are often better tolerated than continuous work at equivalent volume. |
| Implantable cardioverter defibrillator | Know the programmed detection rate and keep the training heart rate at least 20 bpm below it. Confirm upper-limb restrictions with the implanting service in the early post-implant period. |
| Valve surgery and TAVI | TAVI populations are older and frailer than surgical valve populations, with shorter admissions and a rehabilitation pathway that is still catching up. Frailty assessment, not age, should drive the prescription. See Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation. |
| Ventricular assist device | Driveline care, blood-pressure measurement by Doppler, suction events and right ventricular failure all bear on session conduct. See Mechanical Circulatory Support. |
| Diabetes | Glucose before and after sessions where insulin or sulfonylureas are used; foot inspection; awareness that autonomic neuropathy blunts the heart-rate response. |
Delivery models
Centre-based, home-based, telehealth-supported and hybrid models are all supported by evidence in low-to-moderate-risk populations, and both national standards now treat the choice as a matter of participant preference and clinical risk rather than a hierarchy. What must not vary is the content: an alternative model that delivers exercise but drops psychosocial screening, medication review and risk-factor management is not cardiac rehabilitation.
The evidence base
The 2021 Cochrane review of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation in coronary heart disease included eighty-five randomised trials and more than twenty-three thousand participants, and found reductions in cardiovascular mortality, myocardial infarction and all-cause hospitalisation, with improvements in health-related quality of life and evidence of cost-effectiveness.8,9 Effects on all-cause mortality were less certain, and the review noted that contemporary trials on a background of modern secondary prevention show smaller absolute effects than older trials — a dilution of effect that is expected, not a refutation.
In heart failure, the 2023 Cochrane update found reduced hospitalisation and clinically important improvement in health-related quality of life.10 The evidence is thinner in HFpEF than HFrEF, and thinner again in the frail and very old, where the trial populations are least representative of the clinic.
Where practice falls short
Three failures recur, and none of them is about the exercise prescription. Referral is missed at the point of discharge, particularly after PCI and in heart failure. Psychosocial screening is documented but not acted on. And the transition at the end of the programme is treated as an administrative discharge rather than the beginning of the phase that determines whether any of the gain is retained.
Part 2 · References
- Candelaria D, Redfern J, Zecchin R, et al. 2026 update of the core components of cardiovascular rehabilitation: a position statement from the Australian Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation Association (ACRA). Heart Lung Circ 2026;35(8):998–1017.
- Redfern J, Thomas RJ, Briffa T, et al. World Heart Federation roadmap on cardiac rehabilitation: a pathway to lifelong cardiovascular health. Nat Rev Cardiol 2026.
- British Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation. The BACPR standards and core components for cardiovascular disease prevention and rehabilitation. 4th ed. London: BACPR; 2023.
- Woodruffe S, Neubeck L, Clark RA, et al. Australian Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation Association (ACRA) core components of cardiovascular disease secondary prevention and cardiac rehabilitation 2014. Heart Lung Circ 2015;24(5):430–441.
- Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. A clinical guide for assessment and prescription of exercise and physical activity in cardiac rehabilitation: a CSANZ position statement. Heart Lung Circ 2023.
- Taylor JL, Holland DJ, Spathis JG, et al. Guidelines for the delivery and monitoring of high intensity interval training in clinical populations. Prog Cardiovasc Dis 2019;62(2):140–146.
- Katijjahbe MA, Granger CL, Denehy L, et al. Standard restrictive sternal precautions and modified sternal precautions had similar effects in people after cardiac surgery via median sternotomy (‘SMART’ trial): a randomised trial. J Physiother 2018;64(2):97–106.
- Dibben G, Faulkner J, Oldridge N, Rees K, Thompson DR, Zwisler A-D, Taylor RS. Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for coronary heart disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2021;(11):CD001800.
- Dibben GO, Faulkner J, Oldridge N, et al. Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for coronary heart disease: a meta-analysis. Eur Heart J 2023;44(6):452–469.
- Molloy C, Long L, Mordi IR, et al. Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for adults with heart failure — 2023 Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Heart Fail 2023;25(12):2263–2273.
- Brown TM, Pack QR, Aberegg E, et al. Core components of cardiac rehabilitation programs: 2024 update. A scientific statement from the American Heart Association and the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. Circulation 2024.
References are numbered in citation order (Vancouver/BMJ style) and were current at the time of writing. Guidelines are living documents — verify against the latest version before clinical use.
Equipment & outcome measures
What a cardiovascular rehabilitation service needs in the room, and what it should be measuring. The minimum list is what makes a programme safe and prescribable; the additional list is what makes it better. Equipment is the cheapest part of a programme — the constraints that matter are staffing, competence and governance.
Minimum equipment
Resuscitation capability is the one item that is not negotiable and not deferrable. Everything else on this list is inexpensive.
| Item | Why it is a minimum |
|---|---|
| Automated external defibrillator | Every venue in which cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation is delivered must have a defibrillator immediately available on site, with staff trained and competent in its use — the 2018 joint position of the Resuscitation Council UK and BACPR.1 In community venues an AED is the appropriate choice. This governs whether a session can run at all. |
| Emergency oxygen, a first-aid kit and a written emergency action plan | With a rehearsed means of summoning help and a known site address for the ambulance. Rehearse it; do not laminate it and file it. |
| Sphygmomanometer and stethoscope | Pre-, intra- and post-session blood pressure, and the resting measure that is itself a risk-factor outcome. |
| Pulse oximeter | Particularly where respiratory comorbidity coexists, which in this caseload is common. |
| A measured walking course | A flat, straight, hard-surfaced 30 m corridor for the six-minute walk test, or a 10 m shuttle course with cones 0.5 m inside each end, laid out to the ERS/ATS technical standard.2 Fix the layout and do not move it. |
| Cones, floor tape, measuring tape and a stopwatch | Course marking and timed testing. |
| Calibrated audio for shuttle tests | Externally paced tests fail silently if playback speed drifts. Verify annually. |
| Borg 6–20 RPE scale and a CR10 scale | Laminated and at eye level. Perceived exertion governs prescription whenever heart rate is invalidated by beta-blockade, atrial fibrillation or pacing — that is most of the room. |
| Armless standard-height chairs | Rest during testing, and the sit-to-stand measure. |
| Free weights, resistance bands and an adjustable step | 0.5–5 kg dumbbells, ankle weights and graded bands cover the resistance prescription; the step provides progressive lower-limb work. |
| Scales, height and waist measure | Waist circumference and BMI are core risk-factor outcomes under both the ACRA and BACPR core components.3,4 |
| Glucometer and hypoglycaemia treatment | Where participants use insulin or sulfonylureas. Participants bring their own meters; the service holds the fallback. |
| Participants’ own glyceryl trinitrate | Brought to every session and kept with the participant, not in a central box. |
| Documentation | Assessment proforma, individual prescription card, home diary, risk-stratification record and a discharge and maintenance plan. |
Additional equipment where resources allow
| Item | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Cycle ergometers, treadmills, rowers and cross-trainers | Reproducible, quantifiable workload and a wider choice of modality, which matters more for adherence than for physiology. |
| Arm ergometer | Upper-limb work where lower-limb claudication, amputation or musculoskeletal limitation restricts walking. |
| Telemetry ECG monitoring | For higher-risk participants in the early phase, and for arrhythmia characterisation during exertion. Continuous monitoring of everyone is neither required nor useful. |
| 12-lead ECG | On-site rhythm confirmation when a participant becomes symptomatic. |
| Cardiopulmonary exercise testing | Peak VO2, ventilatory thresholds and prognostic data; the reference method in heart failure and pre-transplant work-up. |
| Hand-held or grip dynamometer | Objective strength measurement rather than repetition counting. |
| Point-of-care lipids and HbA1c | Closes the loop on the medical risk-factor component within the programme rather than by correspondence months later. |
| Telehealth and remote monitoring | Video platform, loan blood-pressure cuffs, wearables and a structured contact schedule. In Central Queensland this is the difference between offering a programme and delivering one. |
| Multidisciplinary input | Dietetics, clinical psychology and pharmacy. The BACPR core components assume this; a service without it is delivering the exercise component and calling it rehabilitation.4 |
| Education resources | Heart Foundation materials, medicines lists, action plans and a structured behaviour-change curriculum rather than ad-hoc talks. |
Outcome measures
Measure at entry, and repeat by the same method at discharge. Both the Australian and UK core components require assessment at entry and exit as a defining feature, not an optional extra.3,4
| Measure | Domain | Notes and thresholds |
|---|---|---|
| Six-minute walk distance | Functional exercise capacity | Approximately 25 m in cardiac rehabilitation populations6 and around 30 m in heart failure7 — the value is cohort-specific, so state which you used. Include the practice walk.2 |
| Incremental shuttle walk distance | Maximal exercise capacity | Approximately 48 m, but note this threshold is COPD-derived8 and has not been established in cardiac cohorts. Preferred where an externally paced maximal test is wanted. |
| Peak VO2 from CPET | Aerobic capacity | The reference measure where available. Peak oxygen consumption carries independent prognostic weight in heart failure and informs transplant timing.9 No minimal important difference is established for cardiac rehabilitation — report the absolute change and the test conditions rather than a threshold. |
| Five-repetition sit-to-stand or 30-second sit-to-stand | Lower-limb function | Practical, requires only a chair, and sensitive in frail and older participants. Published thresholds — around 1.7 seconds for the five-repetition version — are COPD-derived10 and should be reported as estimates here. |
| Grip strength | Global muscle function and frailty | Low grip strength is a marker of adverse prognosis and a flag to modify the programme rather than to exclude. |
| HADS, PHQ-9 or the Cardiac Depression Scale | Anxiety and depression | Entry and exit, with a defined referral pathway. A HADS subscale score of 8 or more is the usual case-finding threshold11 and a 5-point change on the PHQ-9 is treated as clinically meaningful.12 The Cardiac Depression Scale is cardiac-specific and appropriate at intake.13 |
| MacNew Heart Disease Health-related Quality of Life questionnaire | Disease-specific quality of life | Minimal important difference of 0.5 points per item.14 |
| Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire | Quality of life in heart failure | Minimal important difference of approximately 5 points.15 |
| Blood pressure, lipids, HbA1c, smoking status, waist circumference | Medical and lifestyle risk factors | The core-component outcomes. Recording them without acting on them is the commonest documented-but-not-delivered failure. |
| Physical activity | Behaviour | Self-report against the 150-minutes-per-week target, or objective step count where wearables are available. |
Service-level measures
- Referral, uptake, adherence and completion rates, reported by sex, age, remoteness, cultural background and Indigenous status. Uptake is the field’s central failure and it is invisible unless disaggregated.
- Time from event or discharge to first contact, and to programme commencement.
- Proportion of participants with a documented maintenance plan at discharge.
- Adverse events and session terminations.
Australian quality indicators for cardiac rehabilitation exist and have been piloted; using them makes a programme comparable rather than merely busy.3
Part 3 · References
- Resuscitation Council (UK) and British Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation. Joint statement on the provision of defibrillators in cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation programmes. 2018.
- Holland AE, Spruit MA, Troosters T, et al. An official European Respiratory Society / American Thoracic Society technical standard: field walking tests in chronic respiratory disease. Eur Respir J 2014;44(6):1428–1446.
- Candelaria D, Redfern J, Zecchin R, et al. 2026 update of the core components of cardiovascular rehabilitation: a position statement from the Australian Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation Association (ACRA). Heart Lung Circ 2026;35(8):998–1017.
- British Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation. The BACPR standards and core components for cardiovascular disease prevention and rehabilitation. 4th ed. London: BACPR; 2023.
- Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Cardiovascular Rehabilitation. Standards for physical activity and exercise in the cardiovascular population. 4th ed. ACPICR; 2023.
- Gremeaux V, Troisgros O, Benaïm S, et al. Determining the minimal clinically important difference for the six-minute walk test and the 200-metre fast-walk test during cardiac rehabilitation programme in coronary artery disease patients after acute coronary syndrome. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2011;92(4):611–619.
- Shoemaker MJ, Curtis AB, Vangsnes E, Dickinson MG. Clinically meaningful change estimates for the six-minute walk test and daily activity in individuals with chronic heart failure. Cardiopulm Phys Ther J 2013;24(3):21–29.
- Singh SJ, Jones PW, Evans R, Morgan MDL. Minimum clinically important improvement for the incremental shuttle walking test. Thorax 2008;63(9):775–777.
- Mancini DM, Eisen H, Kussmaul W, Mull R, Edmunds LH, Wilson JR. Value of peak exercise oxygen consumption for optimal timing of cardiac transplantation in ambulatory patients with heart failure. Circulation 1991;83(3):778–786.
- Jones SE, Kon SSC, Canavan JL, et al. The five-repetition sit-to-stand test as a functional outcome measure in COPD. Thorax 2013;68(11):1015–1020.
- Zigmond AS, Snaith RP. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Acta Psychiatr Scand 1983;67(6):361–370.
- Kroenke K, Spitzer RL, Williams JBW. The PHQ-9: validity of a brief depression severity measure. J Gen Intern Med 2001;16(9):606–613.
- Hare DL, Davis CR. Cardiac Depression Scale: validation of a new depression scale for cardiac patients. J Psychosom Res 1996;40(4):379–386.
- Dixon T, Lim LL, Oldridge NB. The MacNew heart disease health-related quality of life instrument: reference data for users. Qual Life Res 2002;11(2):173–183.
- Rector TS, Cohn JN. Assessment of patient outcome with the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure questionnaire. Am Heart J 1992;124(4):1017–1025.
References are numbered in citation order (Vancouver/BMJ style) and were current at the time of writing. Guidelines are living documents — verify against the latest version before clinical use.
Inspire Clinic runs a combined cardiorespiratory rehabilitation programme rather than separate cardiac and pulmonary streams, because a large share of this caseload has both a cardiac and a respiratory diagnosis. Assessment, exercise prescription and risk-factor work follow the cardiac standards described here.
Corrections: If something on this page is wrong, out of date or unclear, we want to know. Email reception@inspireclinic.au with the page name and what you believe is incorrect. Substantive corrections are made promptly, and the guide’s version and last-updated date are changed to reflect it.