Abstract:

Objective To analyze the effects of moderate exercise on exercise capacity and long-term clinical prognosis of patients with atrial fibrillation. Methods The databases of CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, Pubmed, OVID, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) and web of science were searched for clinical trials of moderate physical activity intervention on patients with atrial fibrillation. The main endpoints of this study involved the resting heart rate, maximum heart rate, 6-minute walk test, maximum exercise power, all-cause mortality and stroke incidence to evaluate the effects of moderate physical activity on activity tolerance and prognosis of patients with atrial fibrillation. Results A total of 7 trials including 2 452 patients were included. The experimental group was the moderate exercise group, and the control group was the inactive group. Moderate exercise did not significantly increase the resting heart rate (MD=-1.68, P=0.70) and maximum heart rate (RD=9.72, P=0.11). Exercise training could significantly improve the exercise capacity of patients with atrial fibrillation, increase the 6-minute walking distance (MD=59.07, 95%CI=11.70-106.44, P<0.05), and improve the exercise power to a certain extent (MD=17.96, 95%CI=-6.30-42.22, P=0.15). Moderate exercise had no adverse effects on the long-term prognosis of patients with atrial fibrillation. Compared with inactive group, moderate exercise group had 15.7% vs 14.2% (RD=0.03, 95%CI=-0.18-0.25, P=0.75) in all-cause mortality and 5.0% vs 2.9% (RD=0.02, 95%CI=-0.06-0.09, P=0.69) in stroke incidence, and the differences in two groups were not statistically significant. Conclusion Moderate exercise can improve the activity tolerance of patients with atrial fibrillation without increasing stroke and all-cause mortality.

Key words: atrial fibrillation, moderate exercise, 6-minute walk test, stroke