Study Ties Physical Activity with Reduced Risk of Hospital Readmission in Patients with Pulmonary Disease

Researchers say that moderate to vigorous physical activity lowers chances of hospital readmission within 30 days among chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.

In this study, researchers at Kaiser Permanente examined the electronic health records of 6,042 Kaiser Permanente South Californian patients. On evaluating the data they found that being physically active significantly lowered the risk of hospital readmission in patients with pulmonary disease compared to inactive patients.  

Researchers examined the health records of patients who were 40 years or older who were hospitalized with COPD between Jan.1, 2011 and Dec. 31, 2012. They observed the patient's self-reported physical activity reported in the health record at the time of clinical visits. The patient's blood pressure was also recorded.

The data was further divided into three groups i.e. inactive, insufficiently active and active.

The researchers noticed that pulmonary disease patients who engaged in 150 minutes of physical exercise a week or more had over 34 percent reduced risk of readmission within 30 days compared to those who were inactive. Those who were involved in less than 150 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity had just 33 percent reduced risk of readmission within a month. 

"The results of this study are groundbreaking because measures of physical activity were derived from routine clinical care, instead of lengthy physical activity surveys or activity devices in smaller research samples," lead author Huong Nguyen, PhD, RN, of the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation, said in a statement. "Previous research has only analyzed the relationship between physical inactivity and increased mortality rate and hospitalizations, but not 30-day readmissions in patients with COPD."

In a joint statement in 2013, the American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society stated that exercise training as a part of the pulmonary rehabilitation showed an improvement in the quality of life among the COPD patients. 

The study was reported in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.