Effectiveness of Aerobic Exercise on Peak Expiratory Flow Rate, Exercise Capacity and Quality of Life in Post COVID-19 Patients
Authors: Johnson Jisha , Mathew Princy 
Published: March 2023

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 is a highly infectious respiratory tract disease caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-Cov-2). Post COVID-19 condition is defined as the illness that occurs in people who have a history of probable or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, usually 3 months from the onset of COVID-19 with symptoms that can last for few months to many years post recovery. Post COVID-19 patients are facing a lot of persistent symptoms such as increased interstitial thickening, evidence of fibrosis, decreased peak expiratory flow rate due to diminished respiratory muscle strength and decreased quality of life. These persistent symptoms will lead to pulmonary complications causing morbidity and mortality. So, pulmonary rehabilitation among Post COVID-19 patients is very important to prevent pulmonary complications. Pulmonary rehabilitation is effective, feasible and safe to improve exercise performance, lung function and quality of life in Post COVID-19 patients. The purpose of this study is to find out the effectiveness of Aerobic exercise on peak expiratory flow rate, exercise capacity and quality of life in Post COVID-19 patients.
METHODOLOGY: 30 subjects were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, then divided equally into two groups. Group A (Experimental group n=15) received aerobic exercise and diaphragmatic breathing exercise (40 minutes of aerobic exercise and 10 minutes of diaphragmatic breathing exercise). Group B (Control group n=15) received diaphragmatic breathing exercise (10 minutes of diaphragmatic breathing exercise). Exercise program was held for five days a week for 5 weeks. Peak expiratory flow rate, exercise capacity and quality of life were measured at the beginning and five weeks after intervention using peak expiratory flow meter, 6-minute walk test and SF-36 questionnaire.
RESULT: The results were analysed using paired and unpaired t test. The significant level was kept as p<0.05. The post test result in case of peak expiratory flow rate, p< 0.05, shows there is a significant difference in post test scores between experimental and control group.
The post test result in case of exercise capacity, p< 0.05, shows there is a significant difference in post test scores between experimental and control group.
The post test result in case of Physical Component Summary (PCS), p< 0.001, shows there is a significant difference in post test scores between experimental and control group.
The post test result in case of Mental Component Summary (MCS), p< 0.001, shows there is a significant difference in post test scores between experimental and control group.
CONCLUSION: The study concluded that, there is improvement in peak expiratory flow rate, exercise capacity and quality of life in experimental and control group. The experimental group shows more significant improvement than control group in all the three parameters.

Key words: Post COVID-19, Aerobic exercise, Diaphragmatic breathing exercise, Peak expiratory flow rate, Exercise capacity, Six-minute walk test, Quality of life.