Although upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) are the most frequent illness among humans, insufficient evidence exists to determine if exercise training during an URTI may prolong or intensify an URTI. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effect of exercise training on the severity and duration of URTI symptoms. Following serological screening, those subjects who were rhinovirus 16 (RV 16) antibody-free completed a graded exercise test. Thirty-four individuals (ages 18-29 years) of moderate fitness (between 32 ml/kg"1/miri 1- 60 ml/kg 1/min"1) were randomly assigned to the exercise group (EX) while 16 individuals of similar age served as a nonexercise control group (CTL). All subjects were inoculated with RV 16 on two consecutive days. EX subjects completed 40 minutes of supervised exercise at 70% of heart rate reserve within 18 hours of each inoculation and then exercised every other day for the next eight days (total of six exercise sessions). Immediately following each exercise period subjects completed a symptom checklist. EX subjects were strongly encouraged to abstain from any additional physical activity while the CTL group was encouraged to be as sedentary as possible for ten days beginning the first day of inoculation. Prior to the first inoculation and every 12 hours afterwards all subjects completed a 13 item symptom severity checklist and a physical activity log (e.g., minutes of walking, and hours of work). Used facial tissues were collected and weighed during these same reporting periods. One-way analysis of variance indicated that there! was no significant difference between groups with respect to additional physical activity. Two-way analysis of variance indicated that there were no significant differences in either the severity or duration of an URTI (symptom scores, mucous weights) between the EX and CTL groups for any given day. Further, no significant differences were observed between the pre and post exercise symptom scores for the EX group. These results suggests that moderate exercise training during a rhinovirus-caused URTI does not appear to alter the severity and duration of the illness. This was the first study to examine the influence of exercise on symptom severity and duration during an URTI. Additional studies should be performed utilizing various exercise prescriptions (e.g. intensity, frequency and duration), subject populations (e.g. younger and older), and fitness levels (e.g. sedentary, and highly fit). / School of Physical Education
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/185461 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Cranston, Tracy E. |
| Contributors | Ball State University. School of Physical Education., Weidner, Thomas G. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | viii, 63 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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