Exercise-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation for Elderly Patients with Coronary Artery Disease - Abstract
The exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) composed of aerobic and resistance training has been established as a fundamental intervention to decrease mortality and cardiovascular events of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) since 1970-1980 years. However, the prescription of traditional training is recently difficult for CAD patients because the number of elderly patients with low mobility has increased. In particular, mobility of CAD patients decreases to about 70% relative to that of healthy people. Reduced mobility has a direct effect on cardiovascular events and mortality. Therefore, the main goals of elderly patients with CAD are to maintain or improve mobility, in addition to secondary prevention and decreasing mortality ratios. Other methods, i.e. interval training, training using neuromuscular electrical stimulation or balance training, have been proposed in addition to traditional training program (aerobic and resistance training) for elderly patients with CAD. Some studies have proved the effectiveness of these training programs. We must prescribe the evidence-based methods for training program on considering elderly patients’ clinical
characteristics or condition.