Aerobic exercise interventions for promoting cardiovascular health and mobility after stroke: a systematic review with Bayesian network meta-analysis

Objective: To determine the superiority of aerobic exercise (AE) interventions on key outcomes of stroke recovery, including cardiorespiratory fitness (V̇O₂peak, primary outcome), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and mobility (6 min Walk Test (6MWT) distance and 10 m Usual Gait Speed) after stroke.

Data sources: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, CINAHL, CENTRAL, SPORTDiscus, PsycINFO and AMED Allied and Complementary Medicine were searched from inception to February 2023.

Eligibility criteria: Randomised controlled trials were included that compared the effects of any AE interventions (low-intensity, moderate-intensity, high-intensity continuous training (HICT), high-intensity interval training (HIIT)) to no exercise, usual care or other AE interventions in individuals poststroke.

Analyses: Systematic review with Bayesian network meta-analysis (NMA) methodology was employed. Surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) values were used to rank interventions. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation minimally contextualised framework for NMA was followed.

Results: There were 28 studies (n=1298) included in the NMA for V̇O₂peak, 11 (n=648) for SBP, 28 (n=1494) for 6MWT and 18 (n=775) for the 10 m Usual Gait Speed. The greatest effect on V̇O₂peak, 6MWT and 10 m Usual Gait Speed was observed after HIIT and HICT. No differences between interventions were found for SBP. SUCRA values identified HIIT as the superior AE intervention for all outcomes of interest. HIIT was the most effective intervention for improving V̇O₂peak (2.9 mL/kg/min (95% credible interval 0.8 to 5.0) moderate certainty) compared with usual care.

Conclusion: This NMA suggests that higher-intensity AE is superior to traditional low-intensity to moderate-intensity AE for improving outcomes after stroke.