Trials (Oct 2024)

Effects of aerobic training on cardiopulmonary fitness in patients with long COVID-19: a randomized controlled trial

  • Bingqing Bai,
  • Mingyu Xu,
  • Haofeng Zhou,
  • Yingxue Liao,
  • Fengyao Liu,
  • Yuting Liu,
  • Youyong Yuan,
  • Qingshan Geng,
  • Huan Ma

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-024-08473-3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Abstract Background Long COVID-19 is characterized by systemic deterioration of the entire body, leading to significant physical and mental disorders. Exercise training has the potential to improve persistent symptoms and cardiopulmonary functions. Method This was a single-center, randomized, controlled trial. Twenty-four patients aged 18 to 75 years who had a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection and long COVID symptoms. Patients were randomly allocated in a 1:1 ratio to receive either a 4-week exercise training program or an attention control group. The training group participated in 12 supervised aerobic sessions on a cycling ergometer over 4 weeks. The outcomes were to assess the impact of a 4-week aerobic exercise on the persistent symptoms and cardiopulmonary fitness, the surrogate endpoints of COVID-19 recovery and cardiopulmonary health. Results After the 4-week intervention, significant reductions were observed in the total number of symptoms in the training group. Specifically, 67.8% of patients in the training group exhibited reduced or completely resolved symptoms, in comparison to 16.7% in the control group (P = 0.013). After adjusting for gender, significant improvements in the training group were observed for exercise time (P group*time = 0.028), maximum load (P group*time = 0.01), and peak VO2 (P group*time = 0.001), as well as O2 pulse (P group*time = 0.042) and maximum heart rate (P group*time = 0.007). The score of Short Form-12, depression, anxiety, perceived stress, and insomnia did not show significant changes between groups (P group*time > 0.05). Conclusion A supervised aerobic training program has the potential to alleviate persistent symptoms and improve exercise tolerance in patients with long COVID-19. Further research is necessary to confirm these effects in a large population. This intervention could be easily implemented in non-hospital settings, potentially benefiting a broader range of individuals. Trial registration number ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05961462. Registered on July 25, 2023.

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