TY - JOUR A1 - Hebestreit, Helge Uwe A1 - Schmid, Kerstin A1 - Kieser, Stephanie A1 - Junge, Sibylle A1 - Ballmann, Manfred A1 - Roth, Kristina A1 - Hebestreit, Alexandra A1 - Schenk, Thomas A1 - Schindler, Christian A1 - Posselt, Hans-Georg A1 - Kriemler, Susi T1 - Quality of life is associated with physical activity and fitness in cystic fibrosis T2 - BMC pulmonary medicine N2 - Background: Health-related and disease-specific quality of life (HRQoL) has been increasingly valued as relevant clinical parameter in cystic fibrosis (CF) clinical care and clinical trials. HRQoL measures should assess – among other domains – daily functioning from a patient’s perspective. However, validation studies for the most frequently used HRQoL questionnaire in CF, the Cystic Fibrosis Questionnaire (CFQ), have not included measures of physical activity or fitness. The objective of this study was, therefore, to determine the cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between HRQoL, physical activity and fitness in patients with CF. Methods: Baseline (n = 76) and 6-month follow-up data (n = 70) from patients with CF (age ≥12 years, FEV1 ≥35%) were analysed. Patients participated in two multi-centre exercise intervention studies with identical assessment methodology. Outcome variables included HRQoL (German revised multi-dimensional disease-specific CFQ (CFQ-R)), body composition, pulmonary function, physical activity, short-term muscle power, and aerobic fitness by peak oxygen uptake and aerobic power. Results: Peak oxygen uptake was positively related to 7 of 13 HRQoL scales cross-sectionally (r = 0.30-0.46). Muscle power (r = 0.25-0.32) and peak aerobic power (r = 0.24-0.35) were positively related to 4 scales each, and reported physical activity to 1 scale (r = 0.29). Changes in HRQoL-scores were directly and significantly related to changes in reported activity (r = 0.35-0.39), peak aerobic power (r = 0.31-0.34), and peak oxygen uptake (r = 0.26-0.37) in 3 scales each. Established associates of HRQoL such as FEV1 or body mass index correlated positively with fewer scales (all 0.24 < r < 0.55). Conclusions: HRQoL was associated with physical fitness, especially aerobic fitness, and to a lesser extent with reported physical activity. These findings underline the importance of physical fitness for HRQoL in CF and provide an additional rationale for exercise testing in this population. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00231686 KW - Exercise testing KW - Oxygen uptake KW - Longitudinal analysis KW - Accelerometry KW - Questionnaire Y1 - 2014 UR - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/33403 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-334039 SN - 1471-2466 N1 - © 2014 Hebestreit et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. VL - 14 IS - 26 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER -