Comparison of daily physical activity between COPD patients from Central Europe and South America

Abstract

Austrian patients with COPD showed a significantly lower daily physical activity level in comparison to matched Brazilian patients. Socio-economic and ethnic factors appear to influence stable COPD patients differently than described in previous studies including healthy subjects.

Perfil do nível de atividade física na vida diária de pacientes portadores de DPOC no Brasil

“…(28) Although COPD patients were physically inactive in relation to the healthy elderly individuals, they were more active than were the patients in Europe paired in other studies. (3,13) This probably reflects the fact that, in COPD patients, lower socioeconomic status and greater ethnic miscegenation seem to be related to a greater level of physical activity in daily life, as previously described. (13,29) However, this difference was not observed when the results of the healthy elderly individuals in Brazil were compared with the group of healthy elderly individuals in Belgium Of the group of COPD patients, 29 (72%) spent, on average, more than 30 min/day walking (Figure 2), compared with 93% of the healthy elderly individuals.…”

“…(3,8,(10)(11)(12) Recent data have shown that COPD patients in Brazil present a higher level of physical activity than does a population in Europe when the two were carefully paired. (13) However, a detailed evaluation of the characteristics of the level of physical activity in the daily life of COPD patients in Brazil is not yet available. For instance, a comparison of daily physical activity between COPD patients in Brazil and healthy elderly individuals has yet to be carried out.…”

Three-year follow-up study of respiratory and systemic manifestations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

“…The main variable determining the increase in BODE index was dyspnea, assessed by MRC. In our study, despite the significant decrease in mean 6MWD results, the proportion of patients who had an increased BODE index due to changes in the 6MWD was low, since the mean 6MWD values were greater than 365 m. These results are supported by the fact that the time spent walking in daily life in the Brazilian COPD group (56 ± 32 min/day) was markedly longer than that observed in the Austrian sample (40 ± 36 min/day) from the study of Pitta et al (30).…”

Nutritional status and its relationship with different dimensions of functional status in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

“…Notwithstanding, they presented no significant impairment of body composition, and nutritional depletion was observed in only 6 of the 17 patients. Additionally, these patients had less functional impairment than Brazilian patients from other studies 17,25,26 . The present patients were more active than those of other studies; walked more (on average 76.4 min/ day vs. 55 min/day) 25 , and spent less time lying (mean 84.4 vs 119 min/day) 26 during their PADL.…”

“…Additionally, these patients had less functional impairment than Brazilian patients from other studies 17,25,26 . The present patients were more active than those of other studies; walked more (on average 76.4 min/ day vs. 55 min/day) 25 , and spent less time lying (mean 84.4 vs 119 min/day) 26 during their PADL. In addition, patients had an average LCADL %total score of less than 50, indicating that those patients were possibly only slightly limited in their functional status 27 .…”