Ten thousand steps and more. This is a frequent situation in medicine: associations of patients, supported by health professionals, mobilize for access to a drug, generally new, because it is not sufficiently available, or because it is not is not covered by Medicare. The approach is more surprising when the requested treatment is not a molecule but… adapted physical activity (APA). On this World Asthma Day (May 3), the Gregory Pariente Foundation, which is mainly dedicated to adolescent asthma, denounces, in a press release, the six million patients “forgotten about sport-health”.
“Adapted physical activity has proven its beneficial action in asthmatics. Why doesn’t asthma benefit, like all chronic respiratory diseases, from sports on prescription or sports-health? », wonders, in this same press release, Antoine Magnan, head of the pneumology department at the Foch hospital in Suresnes (Hauts-de-Seine) and president of the French-speaking Pneumology Society.
In fact, in this affection of the bronchi, which concerns, in a more or less severe form, 10% of adolescents and 6% of adults, it has been clearly shown that regular physical activity improves respiratory capacity, control of the disease and, more generally, the quality of life. In short, it is – or should be – an integral part of the treatment of asthma, in the same way as medication, or respiratory rehabilitation.
The disease must be well controlled by the treatment, the intensity of the effort adapted, with sufficient hydration
A sign of the importance now given to this therapeutic approach, four of the 33 proposals in the Asthma and Inequalities White Paper (drafted in November 2020) are devoted to it. In addition to the reimbursement of the APA for the most severe patients, the document recommends encouraging sports federations to set up a reception adapted to asthmatics, to promote knowledge of the disease among sports-health centres, and to develop a MOOC certifying asthma and sport for sports supervisors.
Bad reputation
The movement in favor of APA in respiratory diseases extends well beyond asthma. The States General of Respiratory Health of December 2021, bringing together 24 organizations of users and professionals, also included in the priorities financial support for APA, as well as an expansion of the list of respiratory diseases concerned. , accompanied by enhanced communication around this issue.
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