Physical activity and the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A longitudinal follow-up study in Taiwan

Background

This study aimed to investigate whether physical activity (PA) is associated with a lower risk of subsequently developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Methods

We conducted this population-based longitudinal follow-up study in a community in Taiwan. This study recruited 61,446 subjects who had participated in the Keelung Community-based Integrated Screening Program (KCIS) between 2005 and 2012. During their participation in KCIS, they were provided with structured questionnaires to collect their baseline characteristics, including weekly PA time. After excluding subjects diagnosed with COPD before they joined KCIS and/or who provided incomplete lifestyle data, 59,457 subjects remained, and were classified into three groups based on their weekly PA time: i.e., as NPA (no regular PA), LPA (low PA, <90 min/week) and HPA (high PA, ≥90 min/week). The primary outcome was a new diagnosis of COPD, followed up until the end of 2015 or their death. Cox proportional-hazard regression was used to assess the impact of PA on the risk of COPD.

Results

The risk of COPD was more than 20% lower in the LPA and HPA groups than in the NPA group. Specifically, the adjusted hazard ratio for the risk of COPD was 0.72 in the LPA group (95% CI, 0.61-0.85, p < 0.001) and 0.79 in the HPA group (95% CI, 0.69-0.90, p < 0.001).

Conclusions

Our research uncovered an inverse relationship between PA and COPD. The findings suggest that PA might be useful as a strategy for the primary prevention of COPD.