Effects of Aerobic Exercise on Asthma Quality of Life: A Pilot study

Quality of life (QOL) in chronic disease populations is becoming increasingly important. Exercise is beneficial in many chronic disease populations and improves QOL. A paucity of studies has evaluated the impact of aerobic exercise in adults with asthma. This pilot study examined the efficacy of a 12-week aerobic exercise intervention on quality of life in sedentary adults with asthma. Four adults with asthma were recruited into this pilot study and completed the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) prior to and after completing the exercise intervention. Repeated measure analyses of variance (ANOVA)-type models using general linear models were conducted using SAS. Following the exercise intervention, participants demonstrated clinically significant improvements in total AQLQ (4.27 ± 0.72 to 5.49 ± 0.96), but these changes were not statistically significant (F=4.63, p=.120). However, participants did demonstrate statistically significant improvements in the symptom domain of the AQLQ (3.75 ± 0.59 to 5.31 ± 1.09; F=10.96, p=.045), as well as in levels of asthma control as assessed by the Asthma Control Questionnaire (2.54 ± 0.74 to 0.82 ± 0.52; F=36.03, p=.009) and the Asthma Control Test (13.25 ± 3.30 to 21 ± 1.83; F=23.44, p=.017). Results suggest that exercise may play an important role in asthma care and should be considered in addition to traditional asthma treatment due to the impact it has on asthma control and asthma quality of life. Further larger efficacy studies are needed, and potential mechanisms of this relationship should be explored