Chest
Original ResearchAsthmaEffects of Aerobic Training on Psychosocial Morbidity and Symptoms in Patients With Asthma: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Section snippets
Patients
A total of 101 (79 women/22 men) patients between 20 to 50 years old with moderate or severe persistent asthma were recruited at a university hospital. Asthma diagnosis was based on the Global Initiative for Asthma.1 Patients were under medical treatment of ≥ 6 months and considered clinically stable (ie, no crises and changes in medication for ≥ 30 days). Patients with cardiovascular, pulmonary, or musculoskeletal diseases that would impair exercise training were excluded from the study. The
Results
Twelve patients (6 control group, 6 training group) withdrew from the study because of health problems other than asthma, scheduling difficulties, or personal problems. Eighty-nine patients completed the study (45 control group, 44 training group). Before the study, both groups had similar distributions with regard to sex, age, BMI, daily dose of corticosteroids (P > .05) (Table 1), asthma-specific HRQoL (P > .05) (Table 2), anxiety and depression levels (P > .05) (Table 3), asthma symptoms (P
Discussion
The present study shows that an aerobic training program in adults with moderate-to-severe persistent asthma improves asthma-specific HRQoL and reduces anxiety and depression levels and asthma symptoms. These benefits were associated with baseline values, suggesting that the patients who started with worse psychosocial levels demonstrated greater improvement.
Acknowledgments
Author contributions: Mr Mendes: contributed to manuscript writing, the study concept and design, data acquisition, and data analysis and interpretation.
Ms Gonçalves: contributed to manuscript writing, the study concept and design, data acquisition, and data analysis and interpretation.
Dr Nunes: contributed to manuscript revision and the study concept and design.
Dr Saraiva-Romanholo: contributed to manuscript revision, data acquisition, and data analysis and interpretation.
Dr Cukier:
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Funding/Support: This work was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa de São Paulo (grants 02/08422-7 and 07/56937-0) and Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa (grants 480869/04-9).
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