Article

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this paper were (1) to describe objectively confirmed
physical activity patterns across 3 chronic cardiopulmonary conditions, and (2)
to examine the relationship between selected physical activity dimensions with
disease severity, self-reported physical and emotional functioning, and exercise
performance. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Participants' home
environment. PARTICIPANTS: Patients with cardiopulmonary illnesses: chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (n=63), heart failure (n=60), and patients
with implantable cardioverter defibrillator (n=60). INTERVENTIONS: Not
applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Seven ambulatory physical activity dimensions
(total steps, percent time active, percent time ambulating at low, medium, and
high intensity, maximum cadence for 30 continuous minutes, and peak performance)
were measured with an accelerometer. RESULTS: Subjects with COPD had the lowest
amount of ambulatory physical activity compared with subjects with heart failure
and cardiac dysrhythmias (all 7 activity dimensions, P<.05); total step counts
were: 5319 versus 7464 versus 9570, respectively. Six-minute walk distance was
correlated (r=.44-.65, P<.01) with all physical activity dimensions in the COPD
sample, the strongest correlations being with total steps and peak performance.
In subjects with cardiac impairment, maximal oxygen consumption had only small to
moderate correlations with 5 of the physical activity dimensions (r=.22-.40,
P<.05). In contrast, correlations between 6-minute walk test distance and
physical activity were higher (r=.48-.61, P<.01) albeit in a smaller sample of
only patients with heart failure. For all 3 samples, self-reported physical and
mental health functioning, age, body mass index, airflow obstruction, and
ejection fraction had either relatively small or nonsignificant correlations with
physical activity. CONCLUSIONS: All 7 dimensions of ambulatory physical activity
discriminated between subjects with COPD, heart failure, and cardiac
dysrhythmias. Depending on the research or clinical goal, use of 1 dimension,
such as total steps, may be sufficient. Although physical activity had high
correlations with performance on a 6-minute walk test relative to other
variables, accelerometry-based physical activity monitoring provides unique,
important information about real-world behavior in patients with cardiopulmonary
illness not already captured with existing measures.
CI - Copyright (c) 2012 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS