Effectiveness of aerobic exercise training program on cardio-respiratory fitness and quality of life in patients recovered from COVID-19

Background: This study aimed to determine the effect of moderate to high-intensity aerobic and breathing exercise on cardiorespiratory fitness and health-related Quality of Life (QoL) in post-discharge COVID-19 patients. The study included two groups of participants. Methods: A prospective interventional study was conducted at the Bin-Inam Rehabilitation centre at the outpatient department, with 20 recruited patients having below standard 6-min walk test and QoL score at baseline. All the participants underwent five weeks (3 sessions/week) of aerobic training (20–60 min/session) and breathing exercise training (10 min/session). SF-36 health-related QoL modified Borg dyspnoea scale, and 6-min walk test measurements were collected at baseline and final intervention. Paired sample t-test was applied to determine the improvement after 5 weeks of intervention. Sub-group analysis according to inpatient ventilatory support used in active course of disease was also performed. A two-factor repeated measure ANOVA was applied to determine the time difference between sub-groups. All the data were analysed by using SPSS 24.0. Results: Cardiorespiratory fitness, dyspnoea and quality of life has been significantly improved after 5-weeks of training. Sub-group analysis revealed that both groups significantly improved over time in measures of endurance, dyspnoea and quality of life (Time effect p < 0.05). An increase in exercise tolerance was observed in sub-group 1 (who did not used inpatient ventilatory support) manifested by a longer 6-min walk distance 667.8 (35.32) m compared to sub-group 2 (who used inpatient ventilatory support) 602.9 (46.1) m. There were trends towards greater improvement in General health and Body pain domains of health-related quality of life and dyspnoea in sub-Group 1 compared to sub-Group 2. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that rehabilitation training in COVID-19 recovered patients may benefit the recovery after COVID-19. Clinical trial registration number: NCT04445376.