The Relationship Between Physical Work Capacity and Asthma Disease

The measurement of physical work capacity (PWC) is important to create the physiological balance between work and worker. The results of some studies showed a relationship between maximum amount of oxygen consumption (VO2-max) and FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in the first second). The current study aimed at determining the relationship between PWC and asthma disease.
The current cross sectional study was conducted on 44 workers with different degrees of asthma disease (mild, moderate, and severe) and 44 workers without asthma. At first, the information about age, height, weight, smoking, doing exercise, and heart disease was collected by a questionnaire. The heart rate of the subjects was measured after resting for 15 minutes. Then, Tuxworth and amp; Shahnavaz method was employed as the step test method to measure the PWC. In this method, the subject went up and down a 40-cm height stair at a rate of 25 steps per minute for 5 minutes, then the subject sat down and after 30 seconds his heart rate was measured in the following intervals: 30 to 60, 90 to 120, and 150 to 180 seconds. Finally, data were analyzed with the SPSS version 16, using independent t test and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).
The mean PWC index was 5.18 kcal/minute in subjects with asthma and 4.79 kcal/minute in subjects without asthma. The mean and standard deviation (SD) of PWC were 5.15 (0.29) kcal/minute in the subjects with mild asthma, 4.87 (0.60) in subjects with moderate asthma, and 4.28 (0.34) in the ones with severe asthma, respectively. The results showed that the mean PWC in the 2 groups with and without asthma were significantly different (P Based on the study results, PWC was correlated with different degrees of asthma, and asthma disease was an important factor impressing PWC.