Physical Activity and Pulmonary Diseases. A Systematic Review

Autori:

Silviu PETRESCU, Gabriel PITIGOI, Catalin PAUNESCU, Mihaela PAUNESCU

Cod: ISSN: 1583-3410 (print), ISSN: 1584-5397 (electronic)
Dimensiuni: pp. 132-143

How to cite this article:

Petrescu, S., Piţigoi, G., Paunescu, C., Paunescu, M. (2014). Physical Activity and Pulmonary Diseases. A Systematic Review. Revista de Cercetare si Interventie Sociala, 45, 132-143.

Abstract:

Lung diseases represent a major public health problem worldwide, but especially in our country. Official statistics elaborated by the World Health Organization rank Romania in the top of the European countries regarding the prevalence of lung diseases. This article is a systematic review of the literature in order to reveal the benefits of physical activity on the organism in patients diagnosed with various lung diseases. In this research we have introduced all original studies that included the two variables, physical activity and lung disease. The lung diseases included in the systematic review are: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, lung cancer, pulmonary hypertension, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, chronic respiratory diseases. The systematic review of the studies was made on the effects of physical activity on: COPD (35%) lung cancer (17%), asthma (14%) and chronic respiratory diseases (6%), pulmonary hypertension (8%) and pulmonary embolism (12%), as well as pneumonia (8%).The overview of the qualitative assessment reveals that physical activity has an instrumental potential in recovering patients, irrespective of the diagnostic form and associates significantly with the improvement of the quality of patients’ life. We consider that this systematic review can inform the conduct health policy in the future and these must be based on the best scientific evidence and relevant research.