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Updated: Jun 5, 2025

Home-Based Prescribed Pulmonary Exercise in Patients with Stable Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Published on: August 24, 2019
Effects of a symptom-titrated exercise program on fatigue and quality of life in people with post-COVID condition - a
Andreas Barz1, Joshua Berger2, Marco Speicher2
1German University for Prevention and Health Management, Saarbruecken, Germany. a-barz@dhfpg-bsa.de.
Abstract:
Fatigue is the most prevalent symptom within the post-COVID condition (PCC). Furthermore, many patients suffer from decreased physical performance capacity and post-exertional malaise. Although exercise has been proposed as an effective therapeutic strategy for PCC, there is limited evidence on individualised and symptom-titrated exercise interventions in patients with fatigue and PEM. Therefore, we conducted a multi-centre randomised controlled trial to investigate the effectiveness of an individualised and symptom-titrated exercise program. We measured fatigue, health-related quality of life, hand-grip strength, endurance capacity and PEM before and after the 10-week intervention. A total of 118 individuals with PCC were included in the final intention-to-treat analysis. All tests and training sessions took place in commercial fitness and health facilities. We found significant effects on fatigue severity, health-related quality of life and physical performance capacity. Adjusting the individual exercise load to daily fatigue has proven to be an effective and safe strategy in PCC patients with fatigue. Under the guidance of qualified professionals and by utilising symptom-titrated training recommendations, commercial fitness and health facilities present an appropriate setting for outpatient exercise rehabilitation in PCC.
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