Cortes and colleagues' meta-analysis examines the effects on all-cause mortality and fatal re-infarction of early mobilisation (EM) after uncomplicated myocardial infarction (MI). This is an unusual focus because the harmful effects of low activity in people with heart conditions were first identified in the 1930s,1 and the promotion of EM after MI has been routine practice for more than 20 years.

EM, defined as programmed changes in position from bed to chair, bed to standing or bed to walking, was compared with either prescribed bed rest or, more vaguely, ‘conventional care’. No time or language exclusion filters were used to select the randomised and non-randomised experimental studies indexed in the six databases that were searched. Commendably, before extracting data, …