a study by corvera-tindel et al 2004 evaluate the effectiveness of a 12 weeks of low-intensity home walking exercise program hwe for hf patient on functional status and symptoms. the primary end point included exercise capacity and functional performance. the secondary end point included dyspnea and fatigue.
all patients n=79 were randomized into the training group n =42 underwent low intensity 40%-65% hwe training and the no- exercise control group n 37 there were improvement shown in walking distances measured by the 6-minute walk test and post global rating of symptoms when compared with a no-exercise control. the limitation of this study included that research assistants conducted the 6-mwt were not blinded to the subgroups. to minimise possible bias in assessing outcome measures they should be blinded to the allocation groups. time and distance walked were recorded by a pedometer given to the patients.
the pedometers were not sealed patients could read the daily distances travelled there were also minor clinical events such as flu comorbidities interrupted the 51.4% patients in the training program. the compliance rates slowly decreased from 81% in the 5th week to 65% to 71% in the last 6 weeks. low compliance rate may have affected the training effects on peak vo2.
