ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease that affects millions worldwide. Medication management is the current mainstay of treatment; however, there is evidence to suggest additional benefit with lifestyle changes, particularly with increased physical activity. OBJECTIVE: To discover and evaluate the effects of physical activity on asthma outcomes. METHODS: Systematic search of PubMed, Excerpta Medica database, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Cochrane Library, Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine Source, Scopus, and Web of Science identified 11,155 results. Thirty-five articles met our inclusion criteria spanning 20 studies. Data extraction was conducted by 6 independent reviewers, and final results were evaluated by a seventh reviewer and the senior author. RESULTS: Wide variation among selected studies, including the heterogeneity of interventions and outcome variables, did not support a meta-analysis. Mixed results of the effects of physical activity on asthma outcomes were found. Most studies suggest that physical activity improves asthma control, quality of life, lung function parameters, and inflammatory serologies, whereas 3 found no improvements in any of these outcomes. No studies reported worsening asthma outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: This review highlights the emerging and promising role of physical activity as a nonpharmacologic treatment for asthma. Additional high-quality randomized controlled trials are needed to overcome the problems of measurement heterogeneity and the dilution of outcome effect size measurement related to physical activity interventions for asthma.
Subject(s)
Asthma , Quality of Life , Exercise , Humans , Life StyleSubject(s)
CTLA-4 Antigen/genetics , Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes/diagnosis , Pneumocystis carinii/physiology , Pneumonia, Pneumocystis/genetics , Adolescent , Haploinsufficiency , Humans , Immunocompromised Host , Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes/genetics , Male , Osteomyelitis , Pneumonia, Pneumocystis/diagnosisABSTRACT
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and asthma are highly prevalent chronic respiratory disorders. Beyond their frequent coexistence arising from their high prevalence and shared risk factors, these disorders feature a reciprocal interaction whereby each disease impacts the severity of the other. Emerging evidence implicates airway and systemic inflammation, neuroimmune interactions, and effects of asthma-controlling medications (corticosteroids) as factors that predispose patients with asthma to OSA. Conversely, undiagnosed or inadequately treated OSA adversely affects asthma control, partly via effects of intermittent hypoxia on airway inflammation and tissue remodeling. In this article, we review multiple lines of recently published evidence supporting this interaction. We provide a set of recommendations for clinicians involved in the care of adults with asthma, and identify critical gaps in our knowledge about this overlap.
