In a recent article published in the journal BMC Pulmonary Medicine, a team of researchers designed a randomized open-label controlled trial to assess the effects of exercise training in a weight-loss program on asthma control, quality of life, and psychosocial symptoms in obese patients with stable asthma.
Recent evidence suggests that good levels of physical fitness among patients with asthma is important because it improves airway hyperreactivity, psychosocial factors and health related quality of life, and also reduces the need for corticoid administration.
In the article entitled “The effects of exercise training in a weight loss lifestyle intervention on asthma control, quality of life and psychosocial symptoms in adult obese asthmatics: protocol of a randomized controlled trial,” Celso Carvallho from the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, along with colleagues, designed a prospective and randomized open-label controlled trial with two arms and blinded assessments. The study protocol stipulates that both groups will receive similar educational and weight loss interventions (composed of both nutritional and psychological therapies), but only one group will perform exercise training.
The primary outcome will be the absolute change in the asthma control questionnaire (ACQ) between the groups following the intervention. The study’s secondary endpoints will be the assessment of the asthma quality of life questionnaire (AQLQ), levels of anxiety and depression, asthma symptoms and exacerbations, sleep disorders, daily life physical activity (DLPA), body composition, anthropometric indexes, cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET), peripheral muscle strength, pulmonary function, airway inflammation and systemic inflammation.
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According to the team of researchers, “This study will bring a significant contribution to the literature evaluating the effects of exercise conditioning in a weight loss program; the results may facilitate improvements in asthma control, quality of life and psychosocial symptoms and help elucidate the possible mechanisms underlying the improvements in lung function, as well as both airway and systemic inflammation, among obese asthmatic patients.”
Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease characterized by episodes of reversible airway obstruction, chronic airway inflammation and airway hyper-responsiveness. Many cross-sectional epidemiologic studies have demonstrated a relationship between asthma and obesity. Obesity is a major risk factor for asthma, as overweight and obese subjects are 38% and 92% more likely to develop asthma, respectively, than patients with normal weight.
