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Effects of Pilates Exercises in Asthmatic Patients

The Effects of an Exercise Program With Pilates Method on Quality of Life and Clinical Control in Asthmatic Patients: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Status
UNKNOWN
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT03670654
Enrollment
30
Registered
2018-09-13
Start date
2017-08-01
Completion date
2018-12-14
Last updated
2018-09-13

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Asthma

Keywords

Asthma, Exercise, Pilates, Quality of life, Clinical control

Brief summary

Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease with high prevalence worldwide, considered an important cause of morbidity, mortality and high economic costs. Aerobic physical exercise has great merit as non-pharmacological treatment and other exercise modalities have being studied. However, there are few data in the literature about the effects of Pilates method in patients with asthma. The objective of this study is evaluate the effects of a program of exercise using Pilates on health factors related to quality of life in patients with moderate or severe persistent asthma. Patients will be also evaluated about disease control, anxiety and depression symptoms, functional capacity, lung function, respiratory muscle strength, thoracoabdominal mechanics and level of daily life physical activity. The investigators' hypothesis is that strengthening of the deep trunk muscles promotes a mechanical fixation of the thorax, contributing to the clinical improvement of patients with asthma.

Detailed description

This is a randomized, controlled and single blinded trial. Thirty adults with moderate or severe persistent asthma will be randomly assigned into two groups: Pilates method - PM (training group) or muscle stretching exercises - MSE (control group). All subjects will receive the same educational session and will perform the physical exercise proposed for the group for 12 weeks, 3 times/week, 40-minute sessions. The data normality will be analyzed by Kolmogorov-Smirnov, the variables obtained before interventions will be compared with the Student t-test or Mann-Whitney U-test. Comparisons of the initial and final data on outcomes will be analyzed with repeated measures ANOVA with appropriate post hoc of Holm-Sidak. The significance level will be set to 5% for all tests.

Interventions

OTHERPilates

The Pilates exercises will be performed in 12 weeks with 40-minute sessions, three times a week: 2 at ambulatory and 1 at home. Ambulatory sessions will be supervised by a physical therapist in non-consecutive days. Patients could be grouped in classes with a maximum of 4 subjects. The first two weeks will be spent learning the technique and, in the third week, patients will receive an exercise booklet for in-home training. Will be used the classical solo Pilates exercises, adapted for non-trained individuals. Before and after each session, patients will be evaluated in relation to expiratory peak flow, blood pressure, heart rate and asthma symptoms.

The muscle stretching exercises will be performed in 12 weeks with 40-minute sessions, three times a week: 2 at ambulatory and 1 at home. Ambulatory sessions will be supervised by a physical therapist in non-consecutive days. Patients could be grouped in classes with a maximum of 4 subjects. Patients will practice muscle stretching exercises for principal muscle groups, performed with 3 repetitions, 15 seconds sustain and 1 minute interval. Before and after each session, the patients will be evaluated in relation to expiratory peak flow, blood pressure, heart rate and asthma symptoms.

Sponsors

University of Sao Paulo
CollaboratorOTHER
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
CollaboratorOTHER_GOV
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
CollaboratorOTHER_GOV
University of Sao Paulo General Hospital
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)

Masking description

All the measurements will be performed by a blinded professional, who will be masked from randomization and other results. For each test, the same investigator will be maintained before and after the intervention. The participants will know what treatment (exercise) they will receive, but they don't will know what exercise belongs to the control group.

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
20 Years to 59 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* Asthma moderate and severe * Asthma will diagnosed (Global Initiative for Asthma -GINA) * Asthma medication according recommendations from GINA * Body Mass Index ≥18.5 kg/m2 and \<35 kg/m2 * Sedentary * Medical treatment, for at least 6 months * Clinically stable (i.e., no exacerbation or medication changes for at least 30 days)

Exclusion criteria

* Current or ex-smokers (who have given up smoking less than 1 year and/or tobacco charge greater than 10 pack-years) * Cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and other chronic lung diseases * Pregnant * Active cancer * Uncontrolled hypertension or diabetes * Continuous use of oral corticosteroid * Psychiatric disease or cognitive deficit

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Change in health related quality of lifeChange from baseline after 3 months of interventionHealth related quality of life will be assessed by Asthma Quality Life Questionnaire (AQLQ). The AQLQ is composed by 32 items rated on a 7-point scale ranging from 7 = without limitation to 1 = maximum limitation and grouped in 4 domains: activity limitations (11 items), symptoms (12 items), emotional function (5 items) and environmental stimuli (4 items). Total score will be obtained by the average of the 32 items. The score of each domain will be obtained by the average of the items that compose the domain. A higher score indicates a better quality of life in relation asthma disease and a minimal important difference of 0.5 points results in clinically improvement or deterioration for total score and for each domain.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Change in clinical controlChange from baseline after 3 months of interventionClinical control will be evaluated by asthma control questionnaire (ACQ). The ACQ consists of 7 items rated on a 7-point scale ranging from 0 = without limitation to 6 = maximum limitation and the score will be obtained by the average of the items. A higher score indicates worse control and a change of 0.5 point after intervention is clinically important. Asthma will be considered as controlled (ACQ \<0.75 points), not well controlled and poorly controlled asthma (ACQ \>1.5 points).
Change in the level of anxiety and depressionChange from baseline after 3 months of interventionThe symptoms of anxiety and depression will be assessed by Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The scale is composed by 14 items divided into 2 subscales, each containing 7 items. Each item was scored from 0 to 3, with a maximum score of 21 points for each subscale. The score of each subscale will be obtained by summing the items.
Change in thoracoabdominal mechanicsChange from baseline after 3 months of interventionThe thoracoabdominal mechanics will be assessed by optoelectronic plethysmography
Change in pulmonary functionChange from baseline after 3 months of interventionLung volumes will be assessed by Spirometry
Change in functional capacityChange from baseline after 3 months of interventionThe functional capacity will be assessed by the Incremental Shuttle Walking Test (ISWT)
Change in daily life physical activityChange from baseline after 3 months of interventionDaily life physical activity will be assessed using an accelerometer (actigraph activity monitor)
Change in respiratory muscle strengthChange from baseline after 3 months of interventionThe strength of the respiratory muscles will be assessed by manovacuometry

Other

MeasureTime frameDescription
Change in anthropometric datesChange from baseline after 3 months of interventionThe body mass index (BMI) will be calculated by the ration between weight in kilograms and height in meter squared (kg/m2).

Countries

Brazil

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026