Assessment of Exercise Capacity in Home Healthcare: Differences in Three Self-Paced Tests.

Submaximal functional tests of endurance are ubiquitous in clinical practice. This investigation compared cardiovascular responses, perceived exertion, and performance measures following the completion of three self-paced, 2-minute, functional tests of endurance. A pilot prospective, observational, cross-sectional design with 16 community-dwelling older participants compared heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and performance measures following the completion of three randomly allocated self-paced activities. The three activities included 2 minutes of stepping in standing (2MSTD), 2 minutes of seated stepping (2MSIT), and a 2-minute walk test (2MWT). A within-subjects repeated measures ANOVA analyzed differences in change scores for cardiovascular and RPE responses. Pearson's correlations assessed associations in performance measures between the three tests. Standing stepping compared to seated stepping produced statistically higher change scores in HR, SBP, DBP, and RPE (p < .05). Further, 2MSTD revealed statistically higher SBP and RPE scores compared to 2MWT (p < .05). Large and moderate correlations were observed between number of steps completed in sitting and standing (r = 0.83, p < .01) and between standing steps and distance walked (r = 0.56, p = .02), respectively. This pilot investigation informs home care physical therapists that 2 minutes of self-paced stepping in standing produced the greatest change scores in all cardiovascular and perceived exertion responses. No significant differences were noted in HR between self-paced walking and standing stepping, and between standing and seated stepping. For patients unable to walk or step in standing, self-paced seated stepping may be a viable alternative.

Differences in Rate of Perceived Exertion and Workload Intensity in Males and Females during Submaximal Arm and Leg Ergometry.

Purpose: Arm ergometry (AE) is necessitated for individuals unable to perform leg ergometry (LE) exercise. This study explored gender differences in RPE and workload (WL) during AE and LE at submaximal target heart rates (THR). Methods: 35 healthy college-aged individuals were randomly allocated to begin exercise on either AE or LE. Participants exercised on both modes with increasing WL to achieve submaximal THRs of 110, 120, 130, 140 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). Factorial ANOVAs tested for differences in RPE and WL. Results: No significant differences were found in RPE between genders, as well as between arm and leg exercise (p > 0.001). For WL, a significant main effect was found for mode with LE greater than AE (p < 0.001), and gender, with males greater than females (p < 0.001). A significant interaction effect was also found for HR and mode, with a greater increase in WL during LE compared to AE in both genders (p = 0.001). Conclusions: Exercise specialists typically prescribe exercise based on a chosen THR. The results of this study provide meaningful data on mean RPE and WL responses that a given THR elicits for ergometry. The finding of no differences in RPE between AE and LE informs the clinician that at any given submaximal THR, similar RPE scores can be expected during AE and LE. Further research is warranted to investigate differences in wider populations.