The effect of exercise-based rehabilitation on objective physical activity levels in patients with persistent dyspnoea following pulmonary embolism
Stacey Haukeland-Parker a) b), Øyvind Jervan c), Waleed Ghanima b) d), Martijn A. Spruit e) f) g), Aliaksandr Hubin h), Mazdak Tavoly d) i), Jostein Gleditsch j), Trude Støver k), Knut Stavem b) l) m), Hege Hølmo Johannessen a) n)
a) Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Østfold Hospital Trust, Grålum, Norway
b) Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
c) Department of Cardiology, Østfold Hospital Trust, Grålum, Norway
d) Department of Research, Emergency Medicine and Hematooncology, Østfold Hospital Trust, Grålum, Norway
e) Department of Research and Development, CIRO+, Horn, the Netherlands
f) Department of Respiratory Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center (MUMC+), Maastricht, the Netherlands
g) NUTRIM Institute of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
h) Department of Research Administration, Østfold University College, Fredrikstad, Norway
i) Department of Medicine, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenberg, Sweden
j) Department of Radiology, Østfold Hospital Trust, Grålum, Norway
k) Department of Physiotherapy, Akershus University Hospital, Lørenskog, Norway
l) Pulmonary Department, Akershus University Hospital, Lørenskog, Norway
m) Health Services Research Unit, Akershus University Hospital, Lørenskog, Norway
n) Department of Health, Welfare and Organization, Østfold University College, Fredrikstad, Norway
Abstract
Background
Rehabilitation improves exercise capacity following pulmonary embolism (PE), but it is unclear whether this improvement is transferred into increased physical activity.
Objectives.
To explore the effect of exercise-based rehabilitation on objective measures of physical activity in patients with persistent dyspnoea following PE compared to standard care.
Methods
This pre-planned substudy compared an eight-week exercise-based rehabilitation program to usual care. Number of steps per day and time spent in sedentary, low, moderate and vigorous physical activity (in number of metabolic equivalent of tasks) were measured for seven consecutive days at baseline prior to intervention start and at post-intervention using accelerometery. Data were analysed with a mixed-effect generalised linear model.
Results
Complete data was provided by 48 patients at both timepoints (mean age 58 years, 54 % men) with 54 % randomised to rehabilitation. There were no significant differences between groups at baseline. The majority of time (717 min per day) was spent in sedentary activity and mean number of steps per day was 6701. At post-intervention, there were no significant differences between groups in any of the objectively measured physical activity parameters (p > 0.05).
Conclusion
In this cohort, exercise-based rehabilitation following PE did not change daily physical activity levels compared to usual care control group.