title: A home-based exercise program improves heart rate variability and functional capacity among postmenopausal women with coronary artery disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether a home-based exercise program is able to increase functional capacity (FC) and reduce heart rate variability (HRV) in postmenopausal women with coronary heart disease.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Regular exercise training has been shown to improve both FC and HRV. However, those studies were conducted within institutional training programs, and few have included women.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-two postmenopausal women were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group with 16 participants in each group. Those in the experimental group underwent home-based exercise training, 3 times a week for 8 weeks. On the first and final week, each participant's HRV was measured, and their FC was evaluated using a 6-minute walking test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After 8 weeks, the FC of those who had undergone the home-based exercise program showed a significant improvement compared with subjects in the control group (P = .001). The total power (ms2), high-frequency (ms2), and low-frequency (ms2) indexes of HRV were also significantly improved over control values.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In postmenopausal women with coronary heart disease, a home-based exercise program appears able to improve FC and HRV.
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Fu-Chih
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: Shih-Ting
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.forename: Chi-Hung
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Chii
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jeng
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005080:Exercise Test; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged