Abstract

Introduction Little is known about activity behaviours and quality of life (QoL) of patients with parapneumonic pleural effusions (PPE) after hospital discharge. This study is a secondary analysis of a randomised trial (dexamethasone versus placebo) for hospitalised patients with PPE. We: 1) described the patients’ activity behaviour patterns and QoL measured at discharge and at 30 days post-discharge; and 2) examined the association between activity behaviours and QoL scores. Methods Activity behaviour (7-day accelerometry; Actigraph GT3X+) and QoL (Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form 36) were assessed. Repeated measures analysis of covariance controlling for baseline values and a series of linear regression models were undertaken. Results 36 out of 53 eligible participants completed accelerometry assessments. Despite modest increases in light physical activity (+7.5%) and some domains of QoL ( > 2 points) from discharge to 30 days post-discharge, patients had persistently high levels of sedentary behaviour ( > 65% of waking wear time) and poor QoL ( ⩽ 50 out of 100 points) irrespective of treatment group ( p=0.135–0.903). Increasing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was associated with higher scores on most QoL domains ( p=0.006–0.037). Linear regression indicates that a clinically important difference of 5 points in physical composite QoL score can be achieved by reallocating 16.1 min·day−1 of sedentary time to moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Conclusion Patients with PPE had low levels of physical activity and QoL at discharge and 30 days post-discharge irrespective of treatment. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity participation was associated with higher QoL scores. Increasing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity following discharge from the hospital may be associated with improvements in QoL. © The authors 2023.

Keywords

physical activity, quality of life, parapneumonic effusion patients

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

2023

Publication Title

ERJ Open Research

Publisher

European Respiratory Society

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences / Exercise Medicine Research Institute

RAS ID

61856

Funders

Sir Charles Gairdner Research Advisory Committee project grants / Northern Health Foundation

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Comments

Lopez, P., Fitzgerald, D. B., McVeigh, J. A., Badiei, A., Muruganandan, S., Newton, R. U., . . . Peddle-McIntyre, C. J. (2023). Associations of physical activity and quality of life in parapneumonic effusion patients. ERJ Open Research, 9(5), article 00209-2023. https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00209-2023

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1183/23120541.00209-2023