The Chester Step Test Is a Reproducible Tool to Assess Exercise Capacity and Exertional Desaturation in Post-COVID-19 Patients
Abstract
Many people recovering from an acute episode of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) experience prolonged symptoms. Exercise testing is a feasible and cost-effective option for assessing exercise tolerance, fatigue, and dyspnea related to effort. Being that the Chester step test (CST) is a progressive, submaximal test for predicting aerobic capacity, it could be a good option to explore. This study aimed to determine the reproducibility of CST for assessing exertional desaturation and exercise capacity in patients post-COVID-19 disease. A cross-sectional study was conducted on post-COVID-19 patients. Two attempts of the CST were performed. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess agreement between the two tests. Forty-two symptomatic post-COVID-19 patients were included, the mean age was 53.8 +/- 10.3 years, and 52% were female. There was no significant difference between both tests (p = 0.896). Twenty-four percent of participants (10 cases) had a clinically significant decrease in SpO(2) at the first assessment, compared to 30.1% (13 cases) at the second, with no significant difference. An ICC of 0.993 (95% CI: 0.987 to 0.996) was obtained for the total number of steps in the CST.
Más información
Título según WOS: | ID WOS:000909007800001 Not found in local WOS DB |
Título de la Revista: | HEALTHCARE |
Volumen: | 11 |
Número: | 1 |
Editorial: | MDPI |
Fecha de publicación: | 2023 |
DOI: |
10.3390/healthcare11010051 |
Notas: | ISI |