Assessment of Exercise Capacity in Patients Diagnosed with Moderate and Severe Bronchial Asthma: Preliminary Prospective Observational Study.

PURPOSE

The main objective of the study was to assess exercise capacity and physical activity levels in patients with bronchial asthma compared to a control group without asthma, as well as to investigate how asthma severity affects the results of the 6MWT and physical activity as measured by the IPAQ questionnaire.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A total of 63 individuals were studied, divided into two groups: Group A, consisting of 33 individuals with bronchial asthma, and Group B, consisting of 30 individuals from the general population without bronchial asthma. In both groups, the following assessments were performed: The Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and the Borg rating of perceived exertion scale (the Borg RPE scale) ABB.

RESULTS

It was demonstrated that patients with moderate asthma covered more distance during the 6MWT than patients diagnosed with severe asthma. The difference in metres covered between the two groups was statistically significant (p < 0.001), which could be observed during the walk test. The results indicate that a larger proportion of patients with asthma (76%) fall into the insufficient physical activity category compared to those without asthma (24%). Conversely, a higher percentage of non-asthmatic individuals (66.67%) report sufficient physical activity compared to asthmatic patients (33.33%)(P=0.005).

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrated that asthma severity significantly impacts exercise capacity, as shown by shorter distances covered in the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) among patients with severe asthma. While overall physical activity levels (measured by the IPAQ) were not significantly different between asthma and non-asthma groups, asthma patients exhibited significantly more sitting time, suggesting a more sedentary lifestyle.