Introduction:

heart failure is considered the disease of the millennium, its mortality is increasing worldwide. The population with heart failure and depressive disease has a prevalence of 25%.

Objective:

to determine the differences in strength training for upper versus lower limbs as a treatment to decrease levels of depression and anxiety in patients with heart failure.

Methods:

3-year randomised controlled trial with 920 heart failure patients in three groups (aerobic exercise, aerobic exercise plus upper limb training and aerobic exercise plus lower limb training). Haematological samples were taken to determine blood glucose levels and lipid profile. In addition, tests were performed for aerobic capacity, maximum heart rate, anthropometry, depression, anxiety, and clinical and hemodynamic parameters. The tests were performed before and after 24 60-minute training sessions, three times a week, for two months.

Results:

depression levels were reduced by 52% in the operated groups, as well as 59% in the anxiety levels.

Conclusions:

when comparing the effects of lower limb strength training versus upper limb strength training on depression and anxiety levels, aerobic exercise plus upper limb strength training proved to be the most effective in reducing them.

Trial registration:

This trial was registered on 12/04/2019 on the ClinicalTrials.gov site with the Identifier NCT03913780.

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