ASSESSMENT OF EXERCISE TRAINING IN TWO ENVIRONMENTS ON HEALTH PARAMETERS IN PATIENTS RECOVERED FROM COVID-19 WITH PROLONGED FATIGUE AND/OR DYSPNEA: RANDOMIZED, BLINDED, AND CONTROLLED STUDY

• Grant number: 21/12870-6
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: December 01, 2023
• End date: November 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Physical Education
• Principal Investigator: Carlos Roberto Bueno Júnior
• Grantee: Carlos Roberto Bueno Júnior
• Host Institution: Escola de Educação Física e Esporte de Ribeirão Preto (EEFERP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Atila Alexandre Trapé ; Marcelo Papoti ; Tiago Rezende Figueira

Abstract

Survivors of infections caused by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the new coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) infectious disease, show several sequelae that persist beyond the period of the acute phase of the infection, resulting in prolonged fatigue and/or dyspnea. This clinical scenario, which starts about four weeks after the acute phase of the disease, is defined as post-COVID-19 syndrome or long-term COVID-19. It is known that exercise training is a non-pharmacological treatment for several diseases and, based on this premise, expert opinion articles recommend the practice of physical exercise to minimize physiological/biochemical disturbances resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Recently, the scientific community has highlighted the importance to studying the benefits of physical exposure to natural environments in health. Several studies, including literature reviews and meta-analyses, have found inconclusive results regarding exercise training in an open environment/nature in health parameters and in comparison to the practice in closed environments, such as gyms and fitness centers. Additionally, it is known that the transmission rate of SARS-CoV-2 is lower in an open environment (e.g. natural settings) when compared to a closed environment (e.g. gyms and fitness centers). The present study is a randomized controlled trial that aims to evaluate and compare the effects of the same exercise training protocol in two different environments (in a gym environment and in natural settings) on health parameters of women aged from 50 to 69 years who survived SARS-CoV-2 infections but still show fatigue and/or dyspnea. For this purpose, assessments of cardiovascular, respiratory, and biochemical parameters, as well as measurements of anthropometric features, muscle strength, quality of life, diet, fatigue, dyspnea, and physical activity will be carried out before and 12 weeks after exercise training, and 12 weeks after post-intervention assessments. (AU)