RT Journal Article T1 Physical functional performance and prognosis in patients with heart failure: a systematic review and meta-analysis A1 Fuentes-Abolafio, Iván José A1 Stubbs, Brendon A1 Pérez-Belmonte, Luis Miguel A1 Bernal-López, María Rosa A1 Gómez-Huelgas, Ricardo A1 Cuesta-Vargas, Antonio Ignacio K1 Functional tests K1 Heart failure K1 Hospitalisation K1 Mortality K1 Physical functional performance K1 Prognosis K1 Insuficiencia cardíaca K1 Hospitalización K1 Mortalidad K1 Rendimiento físico funcional K1 Pronóstico AB Background: Patients with Heart Failure (HF) show impaired functional capacities which have been related to their prognosis. Moreover, physical functional performance in functional tests has also been related to the prognosis in patients with HF. Thus, it would be useful to investigate how physical functional performance in functional tests could determine the prognosis in patients with HF, because HF is the leading cause of hospital admissions for people older than 65 years old. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to summarise and synthesise the evidence published about the relationship between physical functional performance and prognosis in patients with HF, as well as assess the risk of bias of included studies and the level of evidence per outcome.Methods: Major electronic databases, such as PubMed, AMED, CINAHL, EMBASE, PEDro, Web of Science, were searched from inception to March 2020 for observational longitudinal cohort studies (prospective or retrospective) examining the relationship between physical functional performance and prognosis in patients with HF.Results: 44 observational longitudinal cohort studies with a total of 22,598 patients with HF were included. 26 included studies reported a low risk of bias, and 17 included studies showed a moderate risk of bias. Patients with poor physical functional performance in the Six Minute Walking Test (6MWT), in the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) and in the Gait Speed Test showed worse prognosis in terms of larger risk of hospitalisation or mortality than patients with good physical functional performance. However, there was a lack of homogeneity regarding which cut-off points should be used to stratify patients with poor physical functional performance from patients with good physical functional performance.Conclusion: The review includes a large number of studies which show a strong relationship between physical functional performance and prognosis in patients with HF. Most of the included studies reported a low risk of bias, and GRADE criteria showed a low and a moderate level of evidence per outcome. PB BioMed Central, Springer Nature YR 2020 FD 2020-12-09 LK http://hdl.handle.net/10668/3726 UL http://hdl.handle.net/10668/3726 LA en NO Fuentes-Abolafio IJ, Stubbs B, Pérez-Belmonte LM, Bernal-López MR, Gómez-Huelgas R, Cuesta-Vargas AI. Physical functional performance and prognosis in patients with heart failure: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Cardiovasc Disord. 2020 Dec 9;20(1):512 DS RISalud RD Apr 19, 2025