Arm activity in daily life in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Rationale : To date, no study has objectively compared arm activity in daily life in individuals with COPD with healthy controls. Our objectives were to determine whether individuals with COPD have decreased arm activity during daily life compared to healthy controls and to investigate the relationships between arm activity during daily life and dyspnea during activities of daily living (ADL), arm exercise capacity and self-reported performance during ADL. Methods: Participants worn an actigraph on the dominant arm for 24 hours, 7 consecutive days. Corrections for walking time were made and mean activity scores (counts/epoch) per day were averaged over the 7 days and presented as daily arm activity.Dyspnea during ADL, arm exercise capacity and self-reported performance during ADL were measured using the dyspnea domain of the Chronic Respiratory Disease Questionnaire (CRQ dyspnea ), the Unsupported Upper Limb Exercise test (UULEX) and the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM). Results: Thirty individuals with COPD (FEV 1 % = 33 ± 18%; 70 ± 7 yrs) and 14 healthy controls (FEV 1 % = 104 ± 16%; 66 ± 9 yrs) exhibited similar daily arm activity (138 ± 31;COPD vs. 133 ± 21; controls) (p = 0.6). Arm exercise capacity was decreased in patients with COPD (513 ± 132 (COPD) vs. 751 ± 144 (controls)). Weak correlations were found between daily arm activity and CRQ dyspnea , arm exercise capacity and self-reported performance during ADL, ranging from -0.22 to 0.13 (p ≥ 0.2). Conclusions: Individuals with COPD have similar arm activity levels than health elderly controls despite decreased arm exercise capacity.