Comparison of characteristics and long COVID symptoms between exercise and control groups after intervention
| Variable | Exercise group (n=14) | Control group (n=14) | Mean difference in change (95% CI) | p-value | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | Follow-up | Baseline | Follow-up | Time | Group | Time ×group | |||
| Characteristic | |||||||||
| Body mass index (kg/m2) | 22.1±3.3 | 21.9±3.1 | 20.9±1.9 | 21.0±1.7 | −0.8 (−0.3 to 0.1) | 0.415 | 0.293 | 0.194 | |
| Percent body fat (%) | 27.4±7.7 | 24.6±8.5 |
23.8±6.6 | 22.8±5.9 | −1.9 (−3.3 to −0.5) | 0.011 | 0.325 | 0.190 | |
| Skeletal muscle mass (kg) | 24.8±6.4 | 25.6±6.5 |
24.5±6.8 | 25.0±6.9 | 0.7 (0.2 to 1.2) | 0.009 | 0.881 | 0.513 | |
| Systolic blood pressure (mm Hg) | 121.0±9.1 | 117.6±10.1 | 117.6±10.1 | 114.0±8.3 | −2.8 (−5.4 to −0.2) | 0.038 | 0.210 | 0.617 | |
| Diastolic blood pressure (mm Hg) | 75.6±6.9 | 75.4±7.8 | 75.1±5.5 | 73.7±4.9 | −0.8 (−3.0 to 1.5) | 0.506 | 0.610 | 0.590 | |
| Resting hear rate (beats/min) | 61.9±7.7 | 58.8±6.8 | 65.6±8.2 | 64.6±9.8 | −2.0 (−4.7 to 0.6) | 0.125 | 0.103 | 0.428 | |
| Number of long COVID symptoms | 2.6±0.8 | 0.4±0.6 | 2.6±1.2 | 2.1±0.6 | NA | <0.001 |
|||
| Severity of long COVID symptoms | |||||||||
| Fatigue Severity Scale | 5.11±1.04 | 2.94±1.28 |
4.72±1.03 | 4.66±1.10 | −1.12 (−1.56 to −0.68) | <0.001 | 0.078 | <0.001 | |
| Modified Medical Research Council | 1.1±0.3 | 0.1±0.3 | 1.2±0.6 | 1.1±0.5 | NA | <0.001 |
Values are presented as mean±standard deviation unless otherwise specified.
COVID: coronavirus disease, CI: confidence interval, NA: not applicable.
*p<0.05 vs. baseline; †p<0.05 vs. control group; ‡p<0.05 for Kruskal-Wallis test.
