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Quantitative assessment of walking time and postural change in patients with COPD using a new triaxial accelerometer system

Authors Kawagoshi A, Kiyokawa N, Sugawara K, Takahashi H, Sakata S, Miura S, Sawamura S, Satake M, Shioya T

Received 5 June 2013

Accepted for publication 24 July 2013

Published 2 September 2013 Volume 2013:8 Pages 397—404

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/COPD.S49491

Checked for plagiarism Yes

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Peer reviewer comments 4



Atsuyoshi Kawagoshi,1,2 Noritaka Kiyokawa,2 Keiyu Sugawara,2 Hitomi Takahashi,2 Shunichi Sakata,3 Saori Miura,4 Sachie Sawamura,5 Masahiro Satake,1 Takanobu Shioya1

1Department of Physical Therapy, Akita University Graduate School of Health Sciences, Akita, 2Department of Rehabilitation, Akita City Hospital, Akita, 3Kumamoto Technology and Industry Foundations, Kumamoto, 4Department of Rehabilitation, Saitama Medical University, Saitama, 5Department of Rehabilitation, Research Institute for Brain and Blood Vessels-Akita, Akita Prefecture Hospital Organization, Akita, Japan

Background: The purpose of this study was to quantify the walking time and frequency of postural changes in daily life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) using a new triaxial accelerometer system.
Methods: Twenty-six elderly patients with stable COPD (age 76.8 ± 6.2 years; percent forced expiratory volume in one second [%FEV1] 52.9% ± 26.3%) and 20 age-matched elderly subjects (age 73.0 ± 4.2 years; %FEV1 124.0% ± 22.3%) participated in the study. The subjects’ time spent walking (slow, fast), standing, sitting, and lying down and the frequency of their postural changes (getting up, standing up) were assessed for 7 consecutive days using an Activity Monitoring And Evaluation System (A-MES™). We analyzed the relationships among walking times, frequency of postural changes, and physiologic factors in both COPD patients and controls.
Results: The COPD patients’ total walking time, including slow (<2 km/hour) and fast (≥2 km/hour) walking, and their frequency of standing up were significantly lower than those of the age-matched controls (P < 0.01). The fast walking time in daily life was significantly correlated with the 6-minute walking distance, quadriceps femoris muscle force, and dyspnea (P < 0.01).
Conclusion: These results suggest that both slow (<2 km/hour) and fast (≥2 km/hour) walking time and frequency of postural changes is significantly decreased in COPD patients compared with healthy elderly subjects. The data also suggest that the COPD patients’ different walking times in daily life are significantly correlated with exercise capacity and dyspnea. The 6-minute walking distance had the strongest correlation with fast walking time.

Keywords: slow walking, fast walking, frequency of postural changes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, triaxial accelerometer

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