A study by researchers at the University of Sao Paulo showed that increasing the number of daily steps may help people with moderate to severe asthma control the disease as effectively as structured aerobic exercise.
The study, published in the journal Pulmonology, included 52 patients aged 18 to 65 with uncontrolled asthma and a lack of physical activity. Researchers randomly assigned participants to two groups: one group underwent aerobic exercise on a treadmill twice a week, while the other received guidance on increasing their daily step count and were provided with smartwatches to track their activity levels.
The program lasted eight weeks, and the researchers followed up with the participants four months later. During and after the study, they measured physical activity levels, asthma control, quality of life, anxiety and depression symptoms, and sleep quality.
The results showed improved asthma control and a reduction in respiratory symptoms, anxiety, and depression among participants in both groups, along with an improved quality of life. The researchers found no clear advantage of either approach, and the benefits persisted throughout the follow-up period.
David Hallen Araújo Pinheiro, a researcher at the University of Sao Paulo's Faculty of Medicine and one of the study's participants, said the results suggest that both interventions can help patients achieve better clinical control of asthma.
The two approaches differ in ease of application; aerobic training requires specialized equipment and supervision, while walking and the number of daily steps can be increased without special equipment.
Follow-up showed that the number of steps remained higher than its level before the start of the program in both groups, although it declined compared to the end of the intervention period.
Pinheiro and his team had previously found in a study that walking 7,500 steps a day is associated with improved clinical control of asthma.
Pinheiro emphasized that physical activity does not replace medication, but rather complements it. He stated that the patients participating in the study continued to take their medications according to the recommendations of the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), stressing that "aerobic exercise and behavioral interventions complement medication, and we should not stop taking the medication prescribed by our doctor."
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