EFFECT OF RUNNING WITH SURGICAL MASKS ON CARDIOPULMONARY FUNCTION IN HEALTHY MALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

¹Reiwa Health Sciences University, School of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation, Fukuoka, Japan

Background: In Japan, one of the measures against novel coronavirus infection is the use of surgical masks in public. It has been pointed out that exercise with the mask increases the physiological burden on the body. Although young people may be adversely affected during high-intensity exercise, but no consensus has been reached due to differences in the type, duration, and intensity of exercise.

Purpose: In this study, we examined the effects of running with mask on cardiopulmonary function, perioral surface temperature, and exercise performance in male university students.

Methods: The participants were 20 healthy male university students (21.6±1.6 years) with no respiratory or cardiovascular diseases. The participants underwent cardiopulmonary exercise stress tests mask-on and mask-off on different days until exhaustion. The environmental settings were 20-25°C and 40-60% humidity. The following parameters were measured: time to the end of exercise, Borg Scale (respiratory / lower limbs), surface temperature around the mouth, time to the beginning of sweating, metabolic reaction parameters: peak VO₂/kg, VO₂, VCO₂, pulmonary ventilation parameters: VE, RR, SPO₂, VE/VO₂, VE/VCO₂, and cardiovascular reaction parameters: HR, BP, VO₂/HR. Paired t-test was used to compare each parameter in the mask-on condition and in the mask-off condition. SPSS 25.0 statistical software was used for data processing. The significance level was p < 0.05.

Results: The results showed that the exercise end time (9.0±1.2 min vs. 9.6±1.3 min) and sweating time (5.3±2.7 min vs. 7.0±1.2 min) were faster in the mask-on condition than in the mask-off condition. The Borg Scale of the lower limbs (6.9±1.7 vs. 6.0±2.1) was also significantly higher (p<0.05 ) in the mask-on condition. In addition, running with mask significantly decreased VE (67.0±17.0 l/min vs 85.6±12.7 l/min), RR (33.1±8.0 times/min vs 40.5±7.1 times/min), VE/VO₂ (27.8±4.9 vs 35.7±7.0), VE/VCO₂ (24.7±3.3 vs 30.0± 5.6), and HR (175.3±12.4 vs. 186.5±4.9 times/min) (p<0.05).

Conclusions: Running with surgical masks in healthy male college students was found to affect lung function in particular, increasing lower extremity fatigue and decreasing exercise performance. This study suggests that in addition to the increased sympathetic nervous system activity due to the high exercise load, with masks increased additional cardiopulmonary work and decreased oxygen availability in the active muscles of the lower extremities. However, the participants in this study did not have respiratory/ circulatory disease, and their VO₂, VCO₂, and SPO₂were not affected because of compensatory mechanisms for increased oxygen consumption.

Implications: Because patients with cardiac disease have cardiac compensatory defects, exercise with masks in the patients is expected to reduce not only respiratory function but also other performance due to reduced circulatory functions.

Funding acknowledgements: none

Keywords:
cardiopulmonary exercise test
surgical masks
healthy male university students

Topics:
Cardiorespiratory
COVID-19

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: International University of Health and Welfare

Committee: the Ethical Review Committee of the IUHW

Ethics number: 22-Ifh-011