OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the effects of regular physical exercise on the quality of life (QOL) and laboratory parameters of cardiovascular patients. METHOD(S): Diagnosed and treated in the Division of Sports Science of Wonkwang University in South Korea, 82 cardiovascular patients were enrolled as the research subjects, who were divided into the study and control groups (41 cases in each group) according to random number tables. Those in the control group only received conventional drug therapy and lifestyle interventions, while those in the study group received regular physical exercise in addition to treatment in the control group. The differences in terms of arterial blood pressure (ABP), cardiopulmonary function, laboratory parameters and QOL scores before and after intervention were compared. RESULT(S): Before intervention, there were no significant differences in the four aspects between the study and control groups (p > 0.05). After intervention, patients in the study group had lower systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), resting heart rate (RHR), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (p < 0.05); but higher scores of somatic, mental and physiological functions in the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION(S): Regular physical exercise is helpful to improve the ABP, cardiopulmonary function and laboratory parameters of cardiovascular patients, and is also conducive to preventing the occurrence of atherosclerosis and other adverse cardiac related events and to significantly improving QOL in the elderly.

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