| dc.description.abstract | Background: Patients with COPD experience discomfort performing exercise training. Increased
knowledge about patient’s respond to different types of high intensity interval walking is useful
when customizing exercise programs in order to reduce discomfort, improve compliance and
long term adherence. Objective: To compare the effect of interval walking with short and long
high intensity periods on dyspnea and leg fatigue in patients with COPD, and to investigate how
the dyspnea is affected by disease severity. Material and methods: A randomized crossover
study was conducted during pulmonary rehabilitation. Patients with COPD (n=39) performed
two walking interval sessions, one with 1 min intervals and one with 3 min intervals. Subjective
perception of dyspnea and leg fatigue was determined using Borg ten point category ratio scale
(0=no and 10=extremely severe). Results: Analyses showed a significant difference between 1
min interval walking (5.06±1.87) and 3 min interval walking (6.14±2.06) on dyspnea in favor of
the short intervals (p=<0.001). Patients with mild to moderate COPD report the greatest
reduction in dyspnea when performing short- over long intervals (4.22±1.79 versus 5.93±2.19
respectively, p=<0.001). Short interval walking reduced leg fatigue significantly compared with
long interval walking (2.83±1.72 versus 3.58±2.09 respectively, p=<0.001). Conclusions: Short
interval walking is better tolerated by patients with COPD, due to a reduction in dyspnea and leg
fatigue. | nb_NO |
