The influence of physical activity level on the length of stay in hospital in older men survivors of COVID-19
E L Antunes, B M Costa, R C Sochodolak, L M Vargas, N M Okuno
Sport Sciences for Health, doi:10.1007/s11332-022-00948-7
The purpose of this study was to verify the influence of physical activity level on the length of hospital stay in older men recovered from COVID-19. In total, 126 older men diagnosed with COVID-19 were admitted to the hospital between September and December 2020. Among them, 70 survived, of which 39 older men were included in the study. Within 30 days after discharge, patients answered the International Physical Activity Questionnaire to measure their physical activity level through phone contact, with questions corresponding to the week before symptom onset. Clinical and laboratorial data from admission, days between onset of symptoms and admission, length of stay, computed tomography abnormalities, and the need for the intensive care unit were collected. The groups (active × sedentary) were compared using the Student t test or Mann-Whitney test for quantitative data and chi-square test was used for categorical data. There is no difference between the groups in characteristics of admission (p > 0.05), except by potassium level. Active older men had a shorter length of stay (6.50 ± 3.46 vs 11.48 ± 7.63 days; p = 0.03), disease duration (15.71 ± 4.84 vs 21.09 ± 7.69 days; p = 0.02), and lower frequency of lung damage when compared to their sedentary counterparts. In conclusion, being physically active prior to infection can attenuate length of hospital stay in older men with COVID-19.
Declarations Conflict of interest The authors report no conflict of interest. Ethical approval This study was conducted in accordance with the recommendations from the Declaration of Helsinki.
Informed consent All participants provided informed consent prior to their participation. Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
References
Brasil, Vigilância dos fatores de risco e proteção para doenças crônicas por inquérito telefônico: estimativas sobre frequência e distribuição sociodemográfica de fatores de risco e proteção de doenças crônicas nas capitais dos 26 estados brasileiros e no Distrito Federal em
Campos, Costa, Pulmonary repercussions caused by the new Coronaviruses (COVID-19) and the use of invasive mechanical ventilation, J Health Biol Sci
Castañeda-Babarro, Arbillaga-Etxarri, Gutiérrez-Santamaría, Physical activity change during COVID-19 confinement, Int J Environ Res Public Health
Chu, Akl, Duda, Physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection to prevent person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis, Lancet
Cleland, Ferguson, Ellis, Validity of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) for assessing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and sedentary behavior of older adults in the United Kingdom, BMC Med Res Methodol
Costa, Costa, Barbosa-Filho, Vc, Influence of social distancing on the physical activity level during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rev Bras Ativ Fís Saúde
Echeverría-Esnal, Martin-Ontiyuelo, Navarrete-Rouco, Azithromycin in the treatment of COVID-19: a review, Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther
Fiuza-Laces, Santos-Lozano, Joyner, Exercise benefits in cardiovascular disease: beyond attenuation of traditional risk factors, Nat Rev Cardiol
Grande, Keogh, Silva, Exercise versus no exercise for the occurrence, severity, and duration of acute respiratory infections (Review), Cochrane Database Syst Rev,
doi:10.1002/14651858.cd010596.pub.3Hallal, Gomez, Parra, Lessons learned after 10 years of IPAQ use in Brazil and Colombia, J Phys Act Health
Hammer, Kivimaki, Gale, Batty, Lifestyle risk factors, inflammatory mechanisms, and COVID-19 hospitalization: a community-based cohort study of 387,109 adults in UK, Brain, Behav Immun
Hu, Huang, Yin, The cytokine storm and COVID-19, J Med Virol
Huang, Wang, Li, Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China, Lancet
Jahangiry, Farhangi, Shab-Bidar, Web-based physical activity interventions: a systematic review and metaanalysis of randomized controlled trials, Public Health
Javanmardi, Keshavarzi, Akbari, Prevalence of underlying diseases in died cases of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis, PLoS ONE
Kannan, Ali, Sheeza, COVID-19 (novel coronavirus 2019)-recent trends, Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci
Langsetmo, Bats, Cawthon, The association between objectively measured physical activity and subsequent health care utilization in older men, J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci
Lee, Lee, Sy, Physical activity and the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, severe COVID-19 illness and COVID-19 related mortality in South Korea: a nationwide cohort study, Br J Sports Med,
doi:10.1136/bjsports-2021-104203Marino, Vargas, Skein, Metabolic and inflammatory health in SARS-CoV-2 and the potential role for habitual exercise in reducing disease severity, Inflamm Res,
doi:10.1007/s00011-021-01517-3Marques, Gheller, Physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic: a survey with adults in Northern Brazil, Rev Bras Ativ Fís Saúde
Matias, Dominski, The COVID-19 pandemic challenges physical activity with two emerging paradigms, Rev Bras Ativ Fís Saúde
Matsudo, Araujo, Matsudo, International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ): study of validity and reliability in Brazil, Rev Bras Ativ Fís Saúde
Mesas, Redondo, Bueno, Predictors of in-hospital COVID-19 mortality: a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis exploring differences by age, sex and health conditions, PLoS ONE
Pedersen, Saltin, Exercise as medicine-evidence for prescribing exercise as therapy in 26 different chronic disease, Scand J Med Sci Sports
Peçanha, Goessler, Roschel, Social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic can increase physical inactivity and the global burden of cardiovascular disease, Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol
Pinto, Goessler, Fernandes, No independent associations between physical activity and clinical outcomes among hospitalized patients with moderate to severe COVID-19, J Sport Health Sci
Sallis, Young, Tartof, Physical inactivity is associated with a higher risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes: a study in 48440 adult patients, Br J Sports Med,
doi:10.1136/bjsports-2021-104080Simpson, Kay, Abbara, Radiological society of North America expert consensus document on reporting chest CT findings related to COVID-19: endorsed by the Society of Thoracic Radiology, the American College of Radiology, and RSNA, Cardiothorac Imaging
Siu, Campitelli, Kwong, Physical activity and Influenza-Coded outpatients visits, a population-based cohort study, PLoS ONE
Sjostrom, Ainsworth, Bauman, Guidelines for data processing and analysis of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ)-short and long forms
Souza, Motta-Santos, Soares, Association of physical activity levels and the prevalence of COVID-19-associated hospitalization, J Sci Med Sport
Suzuki, Chronic inflammation as an immunological abnormality and effectiveness of exercise, Biomolecules
Tavakol, Ghannadi, Tabesh, Relationship between physical activity, healthy lifestyle and COVID-19 disease severity; a cross-sectional study,
doi:10.1007/s10389-020-01468-9Thompson, Joy, Jaworski, Exercise is Medicine, Am J Lifestyle Med
Udensi, Tchounwou, Potassium homeostasis, oxidative stress, and human disease, Int J Clin Exp Physiol
Woolcott, Ashe, Miller, Does physical activity reduce seniors' need for healthcare? A study of 24281 Canadians, Br J Sports Med
Yang, Zheng, Gou, Prevalence of comorbidities and its effects in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2: a systematic review and meta-analysis, Int J Infect Dis
Zheng, Peng, Xu, Risk factors of critical and mortal COVID-19 cases: a systematic literature review and meta-analysis, J Infect
