In a new study from the University of Leicester, researchers found that patients with lasting symptoms of COVID-19 who completed a six-week, supervised rehabilitation program showed big improvements in exercise capacity, respiratory symptoms, fatigue and cognition.
In the study, the team followed thirty patients who took part in face-to-face exercise rehabilitation classes twice a week over a period of six weeks.
The program included aerobic exercises, such as walking or using a treadmill, strength training of the arms and legs, and educational discussions to support symptom management based upon the information on the Your COVID Recovery platform.
Researchers found a strong improvement in exercise capacity, as measured by scores of distance traveled and ability to keep going without rest, using incremental and endurance shuttle-walking tests.
They also found that fatigue improved by 5 points on the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) Fatigue Scale over the six-week period.
In addition, participants showed improvement in their overall wellbeing and cognition, as measured by standardized clinical assessment tools.
The findings suggest there were big improvements in clinical outcomes of walking capacity and symptoms of fatigue, cognition and respiratory symptoms—factors that patients tell us most affect their quality of life.
The team says that COVID-19 survivors present with a wide variety of symptoms and that a one-size-fits-all approach to managing these would not be appropriate.
This adapted rehabilitation program for individuals following COVID-19 demonstrated promising improvements in clinical outcomes.
They suggest an adapted pulmonary rehabilitation course can be part of a spectrum of patient-centered and holistic approaches to treating the many different presentations of lasting COVID symptoms.
If you care about COVID-19, please read studies about new antiviral drug 10 times more effective against COVID-19 and findings of people with this health condition have high risk of severe COVID-19.
For more information about COVID-19 prevention and treatment, please see recent studies about this anti-inflammatory drug could reduce COVID-19 death risk and results showing that common gut inflammation linked to COVID-19.
The study is published in the journal Chronic Respiratory Disease. One author of the study is Dr. Enya Daynes.
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