Correlação entre a força muscular global e respiratória com a qualidade de vida em pacientes com doença pulmonar obstrutiva crônica

Abstract

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is currently one of the three leading causes of death worldwide, becoming a recognized risk factor for other systemic manifestations and comorbidities. Among these, skeletal muscle dysfunction stands out for causing a significant decrease in strength and quality of life of the individual. The objective of this study was to evaluate the possible correlations between global and respiratory muscle strength and quality of life in patients with COPD. This is a cross-sectional analytical study that evaluated 15 patients, who were submitted to pulmonary function evaluation, to the application of the COPD Assessment Test (CAT) questionnaire, and to the evaluation of respiratory muscle strength, handgrip and isokinetic muscle performance. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to verify the normality of the data and the Pearson correlation coefficient was used to test the correlation of quality of life with global, peripheral, and respiratory muscle strength. A statistically positive and very high correlation was demonstrated in the evaluation between handgrip strength and PE max (r=0.758; p=0.01) and that there was no statistically significant correlation between the assessed muscle strengths and quality of life. Therefore, we conclude that expiratory muscle strength and handgrip strength have a strong influence on the participation of individuals with COPD in ADLs, and that it is essential that new studies investigate the relationship between muscle strength and quality of life in patients with COPD.