Aerobic exercise improves airway control in asthma patients, finds study

The findings of the study have been published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Asthma is a chronic disease defined as reversible airflow obstruction, inflammation, and hyperresponsiveness to different stimuli and characterized by wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing.1 These symptoms reduce patients' quality of life and restrict daily-life physical activity (DLPA).

Aerobic Exercise interventions as well as breathing training have shown improvements in measures such as lung function, quality of life, breathlessness, and controller therapy. However, a direct comparison of the effects of these 2 non-pharmacological treatments for asthma control with a higher level of evidence has not yet been made.

Karen B. Evaristo and associates from the Department of Physical Therapy, School of Medicine, São Paulo, Brazil, carried out the study to compare the effects of aerobic training versus breathing exercises on clinical control (primary outcome), quality of life, exercise capacity, and airway inflammation in outpatients with moderate-to-severe asthma.

The study design involved fifty-four asthmatics who were randomized into either the aerobic training group (AG, n = 29) or the breathing exercise group (BG, n =25). Both interventions lasted for 24 sessions (2/week, 40 minutes/session).

Asthma clinical control (Asthma Control Questionnaire [ACQ]), quality of life (Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire), asthma symptom-free days (ASFD), airway inflammation, exercise capacity, psychological distress (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), daily-life physical activity (DLPA), and pulmonary function were evaluated before, immediately after, and 3 months after the intervention.

Researchers put forth the following key facts.

• Both interventions presented similar results regarding the ACQ score, psychological distress, ASFD, DLPA, and airway inflammation (P > .05).
• However, participants in the AG were 2.6 times more likely to experience clinical improvement at the 3-month follow-up than participants in the BG.
• A greater proportion of participants in the AG also presented a reduction in the number of days without rescue medication use compared with BG.

This study re-enforces the fact that Aerobic training and breathing exercises induce similar effects in asthma control, psychological distress, and airway inflammation, with exercise having a better effect.

"A greater proportion of participants in the AG presented improvement in asthma control and reduced use of rescue medication," the authors said.

Primary source: The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

For the full article click on the link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2020.06.042