Comparison of daily physical activity between COPD patients from Central Europe and South America.

Background: In healthy elderly and adults, lower physical activity level in daily life has been associated with lower socio-economic level and non-Caucasian race. The objective of this study was to determine if this is also applicable in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by comparing physical activity levels in daily life in stable patients from two countries (Austria and Brazil) with different socio-economic and ethnic characteristics.

Methods: Physical activity in daily life was objectively assessed in 40 Austrian and 40 Brazilian COPD patients.

Relationship between pulmonary function and physical activity in daily life in patients with COPD.

Background: It remains unclear how closely the physical inactivity observed in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) relates to the severity of their airflow limitation. Furthermore, it is unknown whether spirometric variables such as maximal voluntary ventilation (MVV) and inspiratory capacity (IC) reflect the level of physical activity in daily life better than the forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV(1)), the main spirometric variable used to determine the severity of COPD. The objective of the present study was to investigate the relationship between physical activity in daily life and the severity of COPD assessed by different spirometric variables: MVV, IC and FEV(1).