Short-term Pulmonary Rehabilitation after Recovering from Severe COVID-19

Marzieh Hashemi; Vajihe Atashi; Shila Haghighat; Raheleh Sadegh; Ramin Sami

doi:10.4103/ijpvm.ijpvm_320_22

Short-term Pulmonary Rehabilitation after Recovering from Severe COVID-19

Int J Prev Med. 2024 Jan 30:14:134. doi: 10.4103/ijpvm.ijpvm_320_22. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Marzieh Hashemi¹, Vajihe Atashi², Shila Haghighat³, Raheleh Sadegh⁴, Ramin Sami¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
² Department of Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Adult Health Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
³ Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Isfahan, Iran.
⁴ Department of Community and Prevention, Isfahan University of Medical Science, Isfahan, Iran.

Abstract

Background: Patients with severe COVID-19 suffer from various problems such as impaired lung function, decreased exercise capacity, mental disorders, and reduced quality of life. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of short-term pulmonary rehabilitation in patients recovering from severe COVID-19.

Methods: The present study was a retrospective cohort study. This study was conducted in 2021 on 92 patients with severe COVID-19 who met the inclusion criteria. Inter-professional pulmonary rehabilitation sessions were performed for 3 weeks, twice a week (six sessions in total), for this group of patients, which included physical exercises, educational activities, and other health-related services (counseling and psychotherapy). Outcomes assessed included a 6-min walk test, the score of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and the SF-12 Quality of Life Questionnaire, which were completed before and after pulmonary rehabilitation. Data analysis was performed using analytical and descriptive statistics.

Results: The statistical analyses showed that 60.86% of patients participating in the study were male and 39.14% were female, and the mean age of patients was 54.9 ± 12.3 years. The findings also showed that the average distance traveled in the 6-min walk test before pulmonary rehabilitation was 289.2174 ± 130.5 m; however, after the intervention, this rate reached 343.0870 ± 103.5 m, which demonstrated a statistically significant difference (P = 0.00). Also, significant changes were observed in anxiety and depression, the ability to perform daily activities, and the physical health of patients before and after the intervention (P < 0.05).

Conclusions: Short-term pulmonary rehabilitation is a safe and useful treatment without side effects that can be effective in reducing anxiety and depression, increasing the ability to perform daily activities and exercise capacity, and consequently, improving the quality of life of patients recovering from severe COVID-19.

Keywords: Pulmonary rehabilitation; severe COVID-19; short-term.