Evaluation of physical activity before and after respiratory rehabilitation in normal weight individuals with asthma: a feasibility study

Background: Individuals with asthma spend less time engaging in physical activity compared to the general population. Increasing physical activity has become a patient-centered goal for the treatment of treatable traits of individuals with asthma. There are data showing the possible effects of a pulmonary rehabilitation program on physical activity in obese individuals with asthma but not in normal-weight asthmatics. The objective of this feasibility study is to estimate the number of daily steps and time spent on activity in normal-weight individuals with asthma, measured before and after a pulmonary rehabilitation program. Methods: Normal-weight individuals with moderate to severe asthma were evaluated. The individuals measured their daily steps with an accelerometer for 5 days before and after a pulmonary rehabilitation program. The study was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05486689. Results: In total, 17 participants were enrolled; one dropout and data on the time in activity of two individuals are missing due to a software error during the download. Data from 16 patients were analyzed. The median number of steps/day at baseline was 5,578 (25th, 75th percentiles = 4,874, 9,685) while the median activity time was 214 min (25th, 75th percentiles = 165, 239). After the rehabilitation program, the number of daily steps increased by a median value of 472 (p-value = 0.561) and the time in activity reduced by 17 min (p-value = 0.357). We also found a significant difference in quality of life, muscle strength, and exercise capacity. Conclusions: The results of this study make it possible to calculate the sample size of future studies whose main outcome is daily steps in normal-weight individuals with asthma. The difficulties encountered in downloading time in activity data do not allow the same for this outcome.