Aging and aerobic endurance adaptations during in-patient cardiac rehabilitation
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Introduction The global population is undergoing a significant demographic shift, with the number of individuals ≥65 years is expected to double in the next 25 years. Aging is a major non-modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), and as the population grows older, the incidence of cardiovascular events is expected to rise. Following cardiac surgery, older adults often experience impairments in performing activities of daily living (ADLs), which can lead to prolonged hospital stays, increased dependence on long-term care, and rising healthcare costs. Conversely, higher ADL frequency is associated with improved clinical outcomes in older patients with CVD, emphasizing the need for targeted rehabilitation strategies. Aerobic endurance (six-minute walk distance, 6MWD) is a key predictor of mortality and long-term independent living, underscoring its crucial role in post-surgical recovery. Given the aging population, preventing a decline of aerobic endurance in older patients undergoing cardiac surgery is of paramount importance for independent living. Aim To compare changes in 6MWD across different age groups in patients participating in a cardiac rehabilitation in the early period post event. Materials & Methods This retrospective single-center cohort study analyzed data from patients who underwent in-patient, exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation between December 2022 and June 2024. Aerobic endurance was assessed using 6MWD at both admission and discharge. Descriptive analyses were performed for age group comparisons. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to assess the association between change in 6MWD and age. We performed linear regression to examine the relationship between change in 6MWD and the predictors age and sex. Results A total of 865 patients were included in this analysis (22.2% female) with a median rehabilitation stay of 20 days (quartiles: 20-27 days). A positive 6MWD change was displayed across both sexes and all age groups, including older adults. Descriptive data is depicted in Figure 1. The 6MWD change between admission and discharge showed a weak negative correlation with age (Pearson’s r = -0.11, p = .003) (Fig. 2). Linear regression analysis showed that age was a significant predictor for 6MWD change (β = -0.78, 95% CI: -1.31, -0.25, p = .004). Sex was not a significant predictor for 6MWD change (β = -4.04, 95% CI: -18.52, 10.44, p = .584). Conclusion Across all age groups and both sexes in early access cardiac rehabilitation presenters increase in 6MWD was observed. This improvement suggests that exercise-based rehabilitation shortly after cardiac surgery might be beneficial for patients as the improvement exceeded more than twice the Minimal Important Difference as reported for different cardiovascular diseases. Figure 2.Relationship Age and 6MWD
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".