Remote exercise sits beside centre rehab with a similar completion share
Remote Exercise SWEDEHEART across 23 Swedish centres offered 3,112 people recovering from a type 1 heart attack remote, centre-based or combined exercise. The share completing the programme was 13.8 per cent against 13.6 per cent, and exercise capacity improved similarly on both routes. Serious exercise-related events were uncommon, and investigators presented the remote option as an addition beside the centre programme rather than a replacement.
Science··Midday
Twenty-three centres offered home and centre exercise together
Remote Exercise SWEDEHEART is a registry-based study run at 23 centres in Sweden. A total of 3,112 people aged 18 to 79 after a type 1 heart attack could take remote, centre-based or combined exercise during 15-month periods according to each centre's offer. Where the option existed, about 38 per cent of logged sessions were done at home. Remotely delivered exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation added to the centre programme came with a similar number of completed sessions.[1], [2]
Completion and capacity gains stayed close on both routes
The share completing the full programme was 13.8 per cent during periods when remote exercise was offered against 13.6 per cent when only the centre option remained. Physical capacity improved in both periods and stayed close between the routes. Exercise-related serious adverse events ran at 0.47 per 1,000 person-hours for centre-based sessions and 0.17 per 1,000 person-hours for home sessions; serious exercise-related events were uncommon.[1], [2]
The remote route does not replace the centre programme
Maria Bäck of Sahlgrenska University Hospital and the University of Gothenburg said remote delivery should count as a person-centred option alongside the centre-based programme rather than a substitute for it. She recalled that only around 15 per cent of eligible people in Sweden and across Europe complete a supervised centre-based programme. Bäck said the remote option does not replace the centre programme but is an additional route that may raise participation. Both reports carried the same message: home exercise belongs beside centre rehabilitation, not in its place.[1], [2]
