Exercise Interventions for Patients with Heart Failure: An Evidence Map

Tingting Wang Ling Ji Jian Li Min Zhang Sixuan Han Yanyan Hong ^*

• Nanjing Hospital of Chinese Medicine Affiliated to Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China

This study aimed to describe and evaluate the evidence on exercise interventions for patients with heart failure by creating an evidence map.We searched PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Database, VIP Database to identify systematic reviews and meta-analysis. We used A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR-2) to evaluate the quality of included systematic reviews and metaanalysis. Bubble charts were employed to visualize key characteristics like intervention effectiveness, literature quality, literature quantity, and heart failure types. Matrix bubble charts were used to show the distribution of outcome indicators, exercise methods, literature quantity, and heart failure types. A total of 113 systematic reviews/meta-analyses were included and over 80% of studies conclude that exercise is beneficial for heart failure patients. Three heart failure types involved varied due to different classification criteria used in the included literature. Eleven types of exercise interventions have been applied in patients with heart failure and mixed modality exercise is the exercise type with the highest attention. Existing researches focus more on the improvement of exercise capacity and cardiorespiratory function in heart failure patients. Most researchers tend to focus on conducting exercise intervention studies in HFrEF. The evidence map provides a visual overview of the research volume and findings on exercise interventions for heart failure patients. Evidence mapping can facilitate the transfer of knowledge from researchers to policymakers and promote research on exercise interventions for heart failure patients.