Objective.

The main objective of this literature review is to analyze the benefits of physical exercise in patients with COPD.

The secondary objective will be to demonstrate that COPD patients have a lower daily AF than healthy controls.

Method.

A systematic review of scientific articles has been carried out whose purpose was to evaluate different interventions based on physical activity in patients with COPD, in order to determine the possible benefits that these patients could obtain.

For this, Pubmed and Web of science (WOS) search portals have been used as bibliographic databases.

Results.

26 articles were selected examining the effects of different AF-based interventions on different clinical aspects of COPD patients.

The studies show that changes in the level of PA, both in stable COPD patients and those found during an exacerbation, are associated with changes in clinical and functional variables of great importance for their health and quality of life. patients.

In our analysis, it is verified how the different methods to increase physical exercise are beneficial stimuli to increase PA and cause positive effects on factors directly related to physical activity itself, such as exercise capacity or distance traveled.

Conclusions.

–In COPD, physical inactivity is part of the vicious circle that causes the limitations suffered by patients in daily life.

–Physical activity on a regular basis improves the quality of life of COPD patients, and decreases the number of hospitalizations and exacerbation mortality.

–Physical activity is the strongest predictor of death in the year following an exacerbation.

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