Abstract

This study was planned to investigate the relationship of obesity with exercise capacity, quality of life, and fatigue level in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). 109 individuals with COPD were included in the study. Individuals were stratified into three groups as normal (18.5≤, ≤24.9 kg/m2, n=34), overweight (25≤, ≤29.9 kg/m2, n=43) and obese (>30 kg/m2, n=32). After taking socio-demographic information of the individuals, The Shuttle Walking Test was used to measure exercise capacity, St. George Respiratory Questionnaire to measure quality of life, and the Fatigue Severity Scale to measure fatigue levels. The average age and BMI of normal, overweight and obese individuals participating in the study were 60.58±13.21 years, 21.48±1.83 kg/m2; 61.83±11.33 years, 26.98±1.50 kg/m2 and 57.55±12.85 years, 33.46±3.93 kg/m2 respectively with age being similar between the groups (p>0.05). In the correlation analysis, there was a significant relationship between exercise capacity and fatigue severity (r= -0.532, p= 0.007), SGRQ activity parameter (r= -0.508, p= 0.011) in individuals with obesity (p 0.05). There was a relationship between fatigue severity and all sub-parameters of SGRQ in all 3 groups (p

Key words: COPD, Obesity, Fatigue, Exercise Capacity, Quality of Life