People who are in better aerobic shape are less likely to be hospitalized due to COVID-19, according to a new study published by researchers at Henry Ford Health System.
This study, published with video and an editorial in the January issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, is one of the first studies to report an association between aerobic fitness – fitness of the heart and lungs – and COVID-19 hospitalization risk.
“This is one more reason to take that walk or get on the exercise bike,” said lead researcher and clinical exercise physiologist Clinton Brawner, senior bioscientific medical staff in preventive cardiology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. “It adds to the current understanding that exercise and good fitness levels are related to a lower risk of upper respiratory tract infections like COVID-19 and suggests that people may generally tolerate this infection better if they are more fit.”