Aims: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) on elderly patients with Chronic heart failure (CHF) by literature search and meta-analysis.

Methods: We conducted an electronic search on PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP database platforms. The search period was from the establishment of the database to November 2021 for randomized controlled studies (RCTs) related to the effects of CR on elderly patients with CHF. The RevMan 5.4 was used for meta-analysis.

Results: This study included 16 articles involving a total of 1782 patients, including 892 in the CR group and 890 in the control group. Meta-analysis showed that compared with conventional interventions, CR increased left ventricular ejection fraction in elderly patients with CHF [mean difference (MD):5.73,95% confidence interval (CI):2.05 to 9.40,Z = 3.05,P = 0.002], and decreased left ventricular end-diastolic diameter in elderly patients with CHF (MD:-4.82,95%CI:-7.49 to 15,Z = 3.54,P = 0.0004), increased the 6-minute walk test distance (MD:62.66,95% CI:44.40 to 80.92,Z = 6.72,P<0.00001), decreased the rehospitalization rate (OR:0.32,95%) CI: 0.21 0.49, Z = 5.33, P < 0.000001).

Conclusions: CR can improve cardiac function, prognosis and reduce rehospitalization rate of elderly patients with CHF.