Table 3.

Summary of recent randomized exercise therapy and cardiac rehabilitation (CR) trials investigating the effects on long-term mortality

				Follow-up
	Cohort	Intervention	Comparison group	(years)	Relative risk reduction*
Hedback	305 men and women,	Multifactorial, 2 x per week	Nonrandomized reference	10	27% all-cause mortality
et al [21]	post-MI, < 65 years	exercise sessions, 3 months	with no CR		(P < 0.01)
					24% cardiovascular mortality
					(P <0.001)
					33% nonfatal MI (P <0.001)
PRECOR	182 men post-MI,	Multifactorial, 3 x per week	Control (usual care,	2	7% absolute reduction in
Group [20]	< 65 years	exercise sessions; or	no intervention)		all-cause mortality† (P = 0.08)
		counselling only, 6 weeks
Hamalainen	375 men and women,	Multifactorial, exercise	Randomized control group	15	4% all-cause mortality
et al [25]	post-MI, < 65 years	sessions, 3 years			(not significant)
					18% cardiovascular mortality
					P = 0.04)
					43% sudden death
					(P = 0.006)
NEHDP [26]	651 men, post-MI,	Exercise only, 2 years	Control (usual care,	19	No reported benefits
	< 65 years		no intervention)

MI, Myocardial infarction; NEHDP, The National Exercise and Heart Disease Project. ^* Relative risk reduction in favor of intervention. ^† No deaths occurred in CR intervention. results are based on comparison of CR intervention with counselling intervention and control (usual care, no intervention) combined.