Oerkild 2012.

Study characteristics
Methods	Study design: single‐centre RCT Country: Denmark Dates participants recruited: January 2007 to July 2008 Maximum follow‐up: 12 months; mortality data after 5.5 years (mean follow‐up 4½ years)
Participants	Inclusion criteria: participants ≥ 65 years with a recent coronary event defined as acute myocardial infarction (MI), percutaneous transluminal coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) and who declined participation in centre‐based CR Exclusion criteria: mental disorders (dementia), social disorders (severe alcoholism and drug abuse), living in a nursing home, language barriers or use of wheelchair N randomised: total: 40; intervention: 19; comparator: 21 Diagnosis (% of participants): Previous MI: intervention: 31.7; comparator: 38.1 Previous PCI: intervention: 21.1; comparator: 23.8 Previous CABG: intervention: 0; comparator: 9.5 Heart failure LVEF ≤ 45%: intervention: 50.0; comparator: 42.9 Event prior to entry into the study: Post‐MI without invasive procedure: intervention: 0; comparator: 19.1 Post‐PCI: intervention: 84.2; comparator: 66.7 Post‐CABG: intervention: 15.8; comparator: 14.3 Age (mean ± SD): intervention: 77.3 ± 6.0; comparator: 76.5 ± 7.7 Percentage male: intervention: 63.2%; comparator: 52.3% Ethnicity: NR
Interventions	Intervention: individualised exercise programmes followed the international recommendations with 30 min exercise/day including 5‐ to 10‐min warm‐up (e.g. slow walking) and 10‐min cool‐down at a frequency of 6 days/week at an intensity of 11 to 13 on the Borg scale. For very disabled participants, the exercise programmes were of shorter duration but then repeated several times a day. At 4 and 5 months, a telephone call was made by the cardiologist to encourage continuous exercising and to answer any medical questions. Components: exercise plus risk factor management Setting: unsupervised individualised programme at home, with telephone support Exercise programme modality: individualised Length of session: 30 min Frequency: 6 days a week Intensity: 11 to 13 on the Borg scale Resistance training included? No Total duration: 12 months Co‐interventions: the participants consulted a cardiologist at baseline and after 3, 6 and 12 months, regarding risk factor intervention and medical adjustment. All participants were offered dietary counselling and, if required, smoking cessation. Comparator: participants received usual care. They received consultation with a cardiologist, and telephone calls at 4 and 5 months. They were not offered exercise education or dietary counselling. Co‐interventions: participants were offered risk factor intervention and medical adjustment by a cardiologist at baseline and after 3, 6 and 12 months.
Outcomes	Mortality, HRQoL
Source of funding	Velux Foundations
Conflicts of interest	None
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	“Patients were randomised in alternated block sizes of 4–6 using computer‐generated randomly permuted blocks”.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	“An impartial person, not related to the study, randomised the patients”.
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	“Because of the nature of the intervention, concealment of randomisation was not feasible with regard to both patients and researcher”. It is not clear if outcome measures are blinded.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	“A total of nine patients died during a mean follow‐up of 4.5 years (usual care group n=5 and home group n=4). There was no loss to follow‐up.”
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	High risk	Although the methods state that outcomes were measured at 3, 6 and 12 months, only exercise capacity is reported at 6 months.