TY - JOUR
T1 - The Chester Step Test Is a Reproducible Tool to Assess Exercise Capacity and Exertional Desaturation in Post-COVID-19 Patients
AU - Peroy-Badal, Renata
AU - Sevillano-Castaño, Ana
AU - Núñez-Cortés, Rodrigo
AU - García-Fernández, Pablo
AU - Torres-Castro, Rodrigo
AU - Vilaró, Jordi
AU - Blanco, Isabel
AU - Gimeno-Santos, Elena
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This study was supported by grants from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), co-funded by the European Union (ERDF/ESF, “A way to make Europe”/”Investing in your future”) (PI21/0555).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.
PY - 2023/1
Y1 - 2023/1
N2 - Many people recovering from an acute episode of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) experience prolonged symptoms. Exercise testing is a feasible and cost-effective option for assessing exercise tolerance, fatigue, and dyspnea related to effort. Being that the Chester step test (CST) is a progressive, submaximal test for predicting aerobic capacity, it could be a good option to explore. This study aimed to determine the reproducibility of CST for assessing exertional desaturation and exercise capacity in patients post-COVID-19 disease. A cross-sectional study was conducted on post-COVID-19 patients. Two attempts of the CST were performed. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess agreement between the two tests. Forty-two symptomatic post-COVID-19 patients were included, the mean age was 53.8 ± 10.3 years, and 52% were female. There was no significant difference between both tests (p = 0.896). Twenty-four percent of participants (10 cases) had a clinically significant decrease in SpO2 at the first assessment, compared to 30.1% (13 cases) at the second, with no significant difference. An ICC of 0.993 (95% CI: 0.987 to 0.996) was obtained for the total number of steps in the CST.
AB - Many people recovering from an acute episode of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) experience prolonged symptoms. Exercise testing is a feasible and cost-effective option for assessing exercise tolerance, fatigue, and dyspnea related to effort. Being that the Chester step test (CST) is a progressive, submaximal test for predicting aerobic capacity, it could be a good option to explore. This study aimed to determine the reproducibility of CST for assessing exertional desaturation and exercise capacity in patients post-COVID-19 disease. A cross-sectional study was conducted on post-COVID-19 patients. Two attempts of the CST were performed. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess agreement between the two tests. Forty-two symptomatic post-COVID-19 patients were included, the mean age was 53.8 ± 10.3 years, and 52% were female. There was no significant difference between both tests (p = 0.896). Twenty-four percent of participants (10 cases) had a clinically significant decrease in SpO2 at the first assessment, compared to 30.1% (13 cases) at the second, with no significant difference. An ICC of 0.993 (95% CI: 0.987 to 0.996) was obtained for the total number of steps in the CST.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Chester step test
KW - exercise capacity
KW - rehabilitation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85145894488&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:000909007800001
U2 - 10.3390/healthcare11010051
DO - 10.3390/healthcare11010051
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85145894488
SN - 2227-9032
VL - 11
JO - Healthcare (Switzerland)
JF - Healthcare (Switzerland)
IS - 1
M1 - 51
ER -
