Cardiac rehabilitation in older patients: Indication or limitation?

Abstract Objective To assess the clinical impact of a cardiac rehabilitation program in an older population. Methods This is a retrospective analysis of 731 coronary patients who attended phase 2 of a cardiac rehabilitation program between January 2009 and December 2016. We compared the response to the program of older (≥65 years) and younger ( Results Older patients represented 15.9% of our cohort. They showed significant reductions in waist circumference (male patients: 98.0±7.9 cm vs. 95.9±7.9 cm, p Conclusion Older coronary patients benefit from cardiac rehabilitation interventions, similarly to their younger counterparts. Greater involvement of elderly patients in cardiac rehabilitation is needed to fully realize the therapeutic and secondary preventive potential of such programs.