The following is a summary of “Association Between Regular Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity Initiation Following COPD Diagnosis and Mortality: An Emulated Target Trial Using Nationwide Cohort Data,” published in the January 2024  issue of Pulmonology by Kim, et al.

Moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) impacts the general health of people with COPD, leading to better quality of life and fewer symptoms. However, not much research has been done on how big of an impact starting MVPA has on real-life clinical results. For a study, researchers sought to determine how starting MVPA affects death and serious worsening in people who have never done MVPA before being diagnosed with COPD. Participants in the study were COPD patients aged 40 or older who had at least one health screening visit before and after being diagnosed with COPD between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2018. They were not doing MVPA before being diagnosed with COPD. MVPA was a major risk. MVPA was described as intense aerobic exercise for more than 20 minutes at least three days a week or moderate aerobic exercise for more than 30 minutes at least five days a week. 

The main outcome measure was death from any cause, and the secondary outcome measure was the time between the identification of COPD and the first serious episode. There were 110,097 person-trials, with 27,564 MVPA rises and 82,533 control groups. After matching, there were no changes seen between the variables. The adjusted odds ratio for all-cause death was 0.84 (95% CI, 0.79–0.89) for the MVPA group compared to the control group. 

It was found that MVPA had a bigger impact on lowering death rates in patients over 65, women, those who had never smoked, and those with a higher Charlson Comorbidity Index score than in younger male patients, those who had smoked, and those with a lower Charlson Comorbidity Index score (P_interaction <.05). The chance of a severe exacerbation was 0.90 (95% CI, 0.87–0.94) for the MVPA group compared to the control group after all factors were taken into account. Initiating MVPA may help lower death rates and serious flare-ups in COPD patients, but more specialized treatments and clinical studies are still needed.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012369223010528