The talk test-A costless tool for exercise prescription in Indian cardiac rehabilitation.

Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) plays a vital role in improving function and preventing mortality of cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients. Outpatient (Phase II and III) CR is almost nonexistent in India because of several reasons such as time, cost, distance, education level, scarcity of resources and so forth. Cardiologists or cardiac surgeons can directly advise patients and their family members to do an optimal dose of exercise in low-resource settings, that is, rural, low-income, or low-educated patients.