| Level of physical activity | p-value | |||
| Low# | Moderate¶ | High+ | ||
| Subjects n | 41 | 207 | 143 | |
| Age yrs | 65.8±8.6+ | 67.3±7.1+ | 61.9±9.7#,¶ | <0.0001 |
| FEV1 L | 1.36±0.50 | 1.43±0.44+ | 1.56±0.48¶ | 0.01 |
| FEV1% pred | 51.4±16.3¶,+ | 51.9±13.6#,+ | 53.3±13.7#,¶ | <0.0001 |
| BMI | 28.2±6.7 | 27.9±3.9 | 28.0±4.1 | 0.94 |
| Pack-yr smoking habit | 46.4±28.2 | 43.7±30.2 | 44.0±25.1 | 0.85 |
| Comorbidities | 2.2±1.4¶,+ | 1.7±1.2# | 1.5±1.2# | 0.003 |
| Dyspnoea | <0.0001 | |||
| I | 0 | 7 (3.4) | 32 (22.4) | |
| II | 11 (26.8) | 117 (56.5) | 85 (59.4) | |
| III | 26 (63.4) | 80 (38.6) | 25 (17.5) | |
| IV-V | 4 (9.8) | 3 (1.5) | 1 (0.7) | |
| GOLD stage | 0.90 | |||
| I | 21 (51.2) | 117 (56.5) | 85 (59.4) | |
| II | 19 (46.3) | 84 (40.6) | 54 (37.8) | |
| III–IV | 1 (2.4) | 6 (2.9) | 4 (2.8) | |
| Smoking status | 0.30 | |||
| Current smoker | 7 (17.7) | 39 (18.8) | 39 (27.3) | |
| Ex-smoker | 31 (75.6) | 158 (76.3) | 99 (69.2) | |
| Never-smoker | 3 (7.3) | 10 (4.8) | 5 (3.5) | |
| Hospitalisations for COPD exacerbation in the 2 yrs prior to enrolment | 0.001 | |||
| 0 | 22 (53.6) | 136 (65.7) | 117 (81.8) | |
| 1 | 11 (26.8) | 46 (22.2) | 19 (13.3) | |
| ≥2 | 8 (19.5) | 25 (12.1) | 7 (4.9) | |
Data are presented as mean±sd or n (%), unless otherwise stated. FEV1: forced expiratory volume in 1 s; % pred: % predicted; BMI: body mass index; GOLD: Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease; COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. #: low physical activity; ¶: moderate physical activity; +: high physical activity. #, ¶ and + indicate differences among the three physical activity categories using Scheffé test for multiple comparisons for continuous variables at p<0.05. Chi-squared tests were used for the comparison of proportions among the three physical activity categories.