To systematically review the factors affecting adherence with exercise rehabilitation in patients with heart failure, so as to provide a theoretical basis for formulating intervention strategies.

PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, JBI Library, Embase, CINAHL, Medline, PsycINFO, OVID, CENTRAL, Chinese Biomedical literature Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database and VIP Database were searched for qualitative studies on the influencing factors of exercise rehabilitation adherence from the establishment of the databases to November 31, 2020. The evaluation was performed using the Australian JBI Evidence-Based Health Care Center (2016) qualitative research quality evaluation criteria, and the results were integrated using the Meta integration method.

A total of 10 studies were included, 22 research results were extracted, 5 new categories were summarized and 2 integrated results were obtained. The first was the patients' own factors, including physical health status, exercise behavior intention and exercise experience. The second was external factors, including the environment and resources.

The adherence of exercise rehabilitation in patients with heart failure is affected by multi-dimensional factors. When formulating intervention strategies, medical staff should start from improving health status of patients, stimulating exercise behavior intention and guiding positive feedback experience, and at the same time provide necessary exercise environment and resource support to improve adherence with exercise rehabilitation in patients with heart failure.

Heart failure; Compliance with exercise rehabilitation; Influencing factors; Qualitative research; Meta-integration