Rehabilitation and Exercise Training After Hospitalization

Rehabilitation and Exercise Training After Hospitalization: Assessing Benefit in Acute Heart Failure (REHAB-HF) Pilot Study

Rehabilitation and Exercise Training after Hospitalization: Assessing Benefit in Acute Heart Failure (REHAB-HF) pilot is a multi-site, randomized clinical pilot study designed to establish the feasibility of conducting a larger clinical trial to address the hypothesis that, in addition to standard care, a novel, progressive, multi-domain 3-month rehabilitation intervention administered to elderly patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) will improve key clinical outcomes, including the rate of rehospitalization and death, physical function, and quality of life.

Three centers,Wake Forest Baptist Health along with Thomas Jefferson University Hospital-Co-Investigator Dr. David Whellan, and Duke Medical Center- Co-Investigator Dr. Christopher O'Connor, will recruit a total of 60 consenting patients ≥ 60 years old hospitalized with ADHF. Once identified and screened, the participants will be randomized in a 1:1 fashion to receive a 3 month novel rehabilitation and exercise training intervention or usual care. This multi-domain intervention will include endurance, mobility, strength, and balance training and be tailored based on participant performance in each of these domains. It will begin during the hospitalization and continue three times per week in an outpatient facility.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age ≥ 60 years old
• Hospitalized for the management of ADHF or diagnosed with ADHF after being hospitalized for another reason. ADHF will be defined as a combination of symptoms, signs, and HF-specific medical treatments.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Planned discharge other than to home or a facility where the participant will live independently.
• Acute myocardial infarction
• Already participating in cardiac rehabilitation