Measurement of physical activity in patients with cystic fibrosis: a systematic review

Abstract

Physical activity (PA) improves exercise capacity, slower decline in lung function and improve quality of life in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Despite the importance of PA, it is important to assess the amount of PA. The objective of this literature review was to evaluate the validity and usability of instruments that are used to measure PA in patients with CF. GoogleScholar, ScienceDirect, The Cochrane Library and PUBMED database were searched. All studies that included instruments to measure PA of patients with CF, published from 2000 till June 2012 were reviewed. Eight studies were included in this systematic review. At this moment, there is not sufficient evidence to support incorporation of specific tools to facilitate the PA assessment into clinical practice. Pedometers may offer an inexpensive method of obtaining a measurement of PA, and there is some evidence for supporting its use in CF.

Keywords::

• cystic fibrosis
• physical activity measurements
• systematic review

Financial & competing interests disclosure

E Hulzebos and T Takken designed the final concept and supervised the study. All authors provided input in the final version of the manuscript. The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Key issues

Key points to physical activity assessment

• • Questionnaires and diaries are useful to screen physical activity levels in population.

• • At this moment, there is not enough evidence to recommend the use of one physical activity questionnaire/diary over another.

• • Pedometers may offer a moderately inexpensive method of measuring physical activity, and there is some evidence of supporting its use in cystic fibrosis (CF).

Key points for future research

• • To investigate methods of reporting objective physical activity data for categorising categorizing physical activity intensity specifically in CF. To investigate the relationship between physical activity and exercise capacity in CF.

• • To investigate the impact of exercise/physical activity interventions on clinical outcome measures.

Notes