Patterns of Daily Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviors in Recent Lung Transplant Recipients

Abstract

Purpose Greater physical activity (PA) and less time in sedentary behavior are associated with better recovery post lung transplantation and reduced all-cause mortality. The aim of this analysis was to describe and examine associations between participant characteristics and objectively measured activity among recent lung transplant recipients (LTRs). Methods In this descriptive study, actigraph accelerometers were used to measure baseline PA for 20 LTRs enrolled in an ongoing telerehabilitation intervention study. Participants were instructed to wear the accelerometer during waking hours for 7 days. Average time spent in sedentary and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) were calculated in minutes per day. Spearman correlations were used to examine the relationships between activity measures and baseline characteristics (age, sex, body mass index (BMI), underlying lung condition, length of stay (LOS) of transplant hospitalization, hypertension stage, Charlson Comorbidity Index Scores (CCI), and days post-transplantation). Results Baseline PA data were collected at a mean of 252±131 days post-transplantation. LTRs were mostly white (95%) and female (60%) with a mean age of 55.6±13.4 years. Most participants had a double lung transplant (90%), non-obstructive lung disease (60%), elevated blood pressure (55%), normal BMI (50%), and scored ≤3 on the CCI (80%). The mean LOS for transplant hospitalization was 25.8±11.4 days. Participants wore the actigraph accelerometers for an average of 6.8±0.6 days. Time spent in sedentary behavior and MVPA were 700±97 and 15±14 min/day, respectively. Time spent in sedentary behavior was significantly higher among males (757±112 vs. 662±67 p=.045). CCI (r=.482, p=.031), days post-transplantation (r=.597, p=.005), and sex (r=.460, p=.041) were significantly positively correlated with time spent in sedentary behavior. No other significant correlations were found between PA measures and baseline characteristics. Conclusion Participants spend the majority of the day in sedentary behavior and had less than desirable levels of MVPA. Comorbidity index, days post-transplantation, and sex were found to be moderately correlated with sedentary time. Further studies are planned to evaluate physical activity patterns of LTRs over time and examine the influence on lung transplantation recovery.