Effects of Aerobic Exercise in Patients With Post COVID-19

Summary

Many structures and organs are adversely affected after COVID-19. The most obvious and common problem is lung involvement. In the pathology report of the patients, it has been shown that there are changes such as diffuse alveolar damage, bronchiolitis and interstitial fibrosis. The most prominent effect of COVID-19 in patients with reduced lung functions is reduced diffusion capacity. While the disease severity worsens, pulmonary fibrosis becomes more pronounced in cases. The complaints of dyspnea and fatigue of patients after discharged continue. Inspiratory and expiratory respiratory muscle weakness are observed in more than 50% of patients with COVID-19, measured in the first month after the discharged. This respiratory muscle weakness is associated with myopathy due to hypoxemia, oxygen support, prolonged bed rest and corticosteroid use, regardless of disease severity.

It is seen that these patients with COVID-19 need exercise training because of lung involvement, decreased exercise capacity and persistence of some symptom complaints after the discharged.

Conditions

• COVID-19

Interventions

OTHER

High-intensity interval aerobic exercise training

High-intensity interval aerobic exercise training will be given to training group on treadmill 3 days in a week and 15-45 minutes in a day for 8 weeks with the assistance of a physiotherapist. The training workload of the active phase of high-intensity interval aerobic exercise training will be applied at 80-100% of peak oxygen consumption or 85-95% of peak heart rate or according to Borg scale dyspnea/fatigue 15-18 points. The training workload of the active recovery phase of high-intensity interval aerobic exercise training will be applied at 50-60% of peak oxygen consumption or 60-75% of peak heart rate or according to Borg scale dyspnea/fatigue 11-13 points.

OTHER

Control Group

Breathing exercises will be given to the control group 120 times in a day and 7 days in a week for 8 weeks as a home program. The control group will be followed-up by telephone once a week.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Gazi University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Ece BAYTOK, MsC · Gazi University

• Başak Kavalcı KOL, MsC · Gazi University

• Nilgün Yılmaz DEMİRCİ, Assoc.Prof · Gazi University

• Meral Boşnak GÜÇLÜ, Prof. Dr · Gazi University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

75 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-02-25

Primary Completion

2024-08-15

Completion

2025-01-15

Countries

• Turkey (Türkiye)

Study Locations