Introduction
valvular disease, heart failure, HF, CVD
DISEASE PROGRESSION, ISCHAEMIC HEART DISEASE, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE, CVD, HEART FAILURE
Patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) such as heart failure (HF), ischaemic heart disease, and valvular disease typically report low levels of physical activity, which affect health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and increase the risk of disease progression and mortalitySeveral previous reports have shown that in hospitalized patients, physical activity such as standing and/or walking decreased to 36% or less per day during their hospitalization, that they spent most of their time in bed or sitting, and that increased comorbidities were associated with a lower daily number of steps and lower upright timeThe Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) is a series of tests used together to measure the functional performance of the lower extremitiesPrevious studies have also shown that 63.8% of elderly patients with HF had low physical function as assessed by the SPPB at dischargeHowever, there are few reports on the rate of SB and the relation between SB and the SPPB in patients with CVD participating in phase I CR (pre discharge). We hypothesized that patients with high SB would have poorer physical function as indicated by the SPPB score than patients with low SB. The present study aimed to investigate the rate of SB and the relation between SB and SPPB as an indicator of physical function and to consider further practical interventions for phase I CR.