Abstract
Whether burn injury affects boys and men differently is currently unknown. To test the hypothesis that burned boys have lower exercise capacity and exercise training-induced responses compared with burned men, 40 young boys (12 ± 4 years, 149 ± 20 cm, 46 ± 18 kg) were matched to 35 adult men (33 ± 9 years, 174 ± 10 cm, 84 ± 16 kg) based on extent of burn injury (total body surface area burned, boys 46 ± 14% vs men 47 ± 30, P = .85) and length of hospital stay (boys 33 ± 23 vs men 41 ± 32 days, P = .23). Strength (peak torque) and cardiorespiratory fitness (peak VO2) were normalized to kg of lean body mass for group comparisons. Each group was also compared with normative age-sex matched values at discharge and after an aerobic and resistance exercise training (RET) program. A two-way factorial analysis of covariance assessed interaction and main effects of group and time. We found that boys and men showed similar pre-RET to post-RET increases in total lean (~4%) and fat (7%) mass (each P ≤ .008). Both groups had lower age-sex matched norm values at discharge for peak torque (boys 36%; men 51% of normative values) and peak VO2 (boys: 44; men: 59%; each P ≤ .0001). Boys strength were 13-15 per cent lower than men at discharge and after RET (main effect for group, P < .0001). Cardiorespiratory fitness improved to a greater extent in men (19%) compared with boys (10%) after the RET (group × time interaction, P = .011). These results show that at discharge and after RET, burn injury may have age-dependent effects and should be considered when evaluating efficacy and progress of the exercise program.
Highlights
Whether burn injury affects boys and men differently is currently unknown
Burn injury is associated with skeletal muscle catabolism and weakness that are accompanied by hypermetabolism, respiratory injury, and diminished lean body mass (LBM) in both adults and children as well as disturbed growth patterns in children.[7,8,9,10,11,12]
Cardiorespiratory fitness was significantly lower in boys than in men when expressed as an absolute value (55%) and when normalized to kg of total body mass (TBM) (22%) or LBM (19%; each P ≤ .006)
Summary
Whether burn injury affects boys and men differently is currently unknown. To test the hypothesis that burned boys have lower exercise capacity and exercise training–induced responses compared with burned men, 40 young boys (12 ± 4 years, 149 ± 20 cm, 46 ± 18 kg) were matched to 35 adult men (33 ± 9 years, 174 ± 10 cm, 84 ± 16 kg) based on extent of burn injury (total body surface area burned, boys ± 14% vs men ± 30, P = .85) and length of hospital stay (boys 33 ± 23 vs men 41 ± 32 days, P = .23). Cardiorespiratory fitness improved to a greater extent in men (19%) compared with boys (10%) after the RET (group × time interaction, P = .011) These results show that at discharge and after RET, burn injury may have age-dependent effects and should be considered when evaluating efficacy and progress of the exercise program. We have found that immediately following discharge, a rehabilitation exercise program improves muscle strength, endurance, and LBM.[14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21] The effectiveness of resistance training is influenced by multiple factors, including age, maturation, sex, and the frequency, duration, and intensity of the training program.[22] whether burn injury differentially affects exercise capacity and body composition in adults and children is unknown. We hypothesized that boys with burn injury have lower exercise capacities and greater body composition changes than burn-injured men
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