Changes in physical activity in healthy people and COPD patients

Pedometry is an objective method to analyse part of physical activity. The aims of this study were to evaluate physical activity (by quantifying walking steps/day) in Romanian chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and healthy subjects. A total of 58 COPD patients (GOLD stages III and IV) and 273 healthy subjects, divided by decades of age, wore pedometers for 2 weeks. Significant decrease of physical activity level was observed in COPD patients vs. control group (3,414 +/- 1,105 vs. 7,200 +/- 2,452 steps/day). Walking performance of patients with COPD stage III was better than that of patients with COPD stage IV. For both groups, the lowest activity level was recorded during the weekend. Patients with COPD could not perform any aerobic movement. This study revealed a difference of physical activity in both healthy individuals and COPD patients, in the latter group the decrease being worse and in accordance with the disease severity.