COVID-19, Chronic Adaptation and Response to Exercise (COVID-CARE)

Summary

Background:

People who are recovering from COVID-19 may continue to have problems that affect their daily life. For instance, they might feel overly tired. Researchers want to learn if exercise can help people recover after COVID-19 infection.

Objective:

To study if participation in a rehabilitation exercise program can help people recovering from COVID-19.

Eligibility:

Adults ages 18-80 with a lab-confirmed SARS-CoV2 infection (the virus that causes COVID-19), and are still having some symptoms.

Design:

Participants will have a medical history and physical exam. They will give blood and urine samples. They will have tests to measure heart and lung function. Their blood vessels will be assessed.

Participants will have a computed tomography scan of the body. They will have an ultrasound of the muscles in their arms, legs, and chest.

Participants will take a 6-minute walk test (6MWT). They will take other balance and movement tests.

Participants will walk on a treadmill while hooked up to a monitor. Then they will be interviewed. It will be audio-recorded.

Participants will complete surveys about their symptoms and daily activities.

Participants will take a smell test. For this, they will identify different smells. They will also have memory, attention, and mental functioning tests.

Participants will wear an activity monitor on their wrist 24 hours a day. They will exercise 3 times a week for 10 weeks by performing cardio-type exercise for 30 minutes. They will attend education classes once a week for 10 weeks.

Participants will be contacted by phone or email every 3 months for 1 year after they complete the exercise part of the study. They will wear an activity monitor for up to 2 weeks.

Conditions

• COVID-19

Interventions

OTHER

Aerobic Exercise Training

Aerobic exercise training will consist of 10 weeks of aerobic exercise, performed 3 times/week for 30 minutes. Each session will include a warm-up and cool-down period. The intensity will be guided by heart rate and gradually increased from light-moderate to moderate-high intensity as safely tolerated by the subject. All sessions are supervised by credentialed Rehabilitation Medicine Department staff members.

OTHER

Education

Education consisting of weekly lectures lasting approximately 1 hour for 10 weeks. Topics related to exercise programming, safety and well-being will be covered. Conducted remotely by credential Rehabilitation Medicine Department staff members.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)

  lead NIH

Principal Investigators

• Leighton Chan, M.D. · National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

80 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-01-22

Primary Completion

2025-05-05

Completion

2026-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations