Impact of aerobic exercise training on frailty in frail cardiovascular disease patients: a pilot study

Abstract

This master’s thesis is situated in the research field ‘Geriatric Rehabilitation’ and ‘Rehabilitation of cardiorespiratory and internal diseases’. Because of the increasing global average life expectancy, the percentage of world’s population over 60 years old and the proportion of elderly who are no longer able to live independently will keep growing. The clinical frailty syndrome is a geriatric syndrome associated with increased vulnerability caused by age-related decline, and is one of the key causes of losing independency in the elderly population and is often associated with a need for long-term care. Additionally, the prevalence of frailty amongst elderly patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) appears to be higher. As frailty is one of the key factors in losing independency, appears to be associated with multiple comorbidities, and is a common syndrome in CVD patients, treating frailty could be an important factor in rehabilitation of elderly CVD patients. Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation has previously been proven to be effective in reducing mortality, hospitalization and health-related quality of life in a broad population of patients with CVD. However, little is known about the effects of these rehabilitation programs in the frail elderly population. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effects of cardiac rehabilitation on frailty markers in elderly with CVD.