High fitness levels, frequent sauna bathing and risk of pneumonia in a cohort study: Are there potential implications for COVID-19?
Kunutsor SK, Laukkanen JA
European journal of clinical investigation · 18 citations
How it was studied
- Design
- Cohort study (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Clinical events such as disease or death
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Independent funding
- Nonprofit
- Foundation for Cardiovascular Research
- University or hospital
- Itä-Suomen Yliopisto
- University or hospital
- NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust/Institute of Cancer Research
- Government
- National Institute for Health and Care Research
- Government
- Department of Health and Social Care
- University or hospital
- University of Bristol
- Nonprofit
- Sydäntutkimussäätiö
- Government
- National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
- Government
- National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre
- Grants
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (1215-20011); Sydäntutkimussäätiö (BRC-1215-20011); University of Bristol (BRC‐1215‐20011); National Institute for Health and Care Research (BRC-1215-20011); NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust/Institute of Cancer Research (BRC-1215-20011)
Based on 9 listed funder(s) and full-text disclosure statement.
Publication
- Published
- 2021-01-15 · Eur J Clin Invest · vol. 51 · issue 3 · p. e13490
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Cited
- 22 citations · more than 88% of similar papers · 2.2× the field average
- References
- 44 works
- Access
- Open access (hybrid journal) · CC-BY
- Research areas
- Thermoregulation and physiological responses · Therapeutic Uses of Natural Elements · Infection Control and Ventilation
- Keywords
- Cardiorespiratory fitness, Medicine, Hazard ratio, Pneumonia, Cohort, Internal medicine, Cohort study, Confidence interval, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Prospective cohort study, Population, Disease, Environmental health, Infectious disease (medical specialty)
- MeSH
- humans, pneumonia, steam bath, incidence, multivariate analysis, cohort studies, prospective studies, safety management, middle aged, finland, male, cardiorespiratory fitness, covid-19, sars-cov-2
2 authors
From GB, FI
- Setor K. Kunutsor · correspondingUniversity Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust; Southmead Hospital; National Institute for Health and Care Research; University of Bristol
- Jari A. LaukkanenUniversity of Eastern Finland; Central Finland Health Care District
Abstract
Background
There is an ongoing debate on a potential protective role of habitual physical activity and passive heat therapy on the risk of COVID-19, a respiratory infectious disease that can manifest as severe pneumonia. To explore these putative roles, we evaluated the independent and joint associations of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and frequency of sauna bathing (FSB) with pneumonia risk in a prospective cohort study of 2275 men aged 42-61 years at recruitment.
Material and methods
Objectively measured CRF and self-reported sauna bathing habits were assessed at baseline. CRF was categorized as low and high (median cut-offs) and FSB as low and high (defined as ≤1 and 2-7 sessions/wk, respectively). Multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) with confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for incident pneumonia.
Results
During a median follow-up of 26.6 years, 529 cases of pneumonia occurred. Comparing high vs low CRF, the multivariable-adjusted HR (95% CIs) for pneumonia was 0.75 (0.61-0.91). Comparing high vs low FSB, the corresponding HR was 0.81 (0.68-0.97). Compared to men with low CRF & low FSB, the multivariable-adjusted HRs of pneumonia for the following groups: high CRF & low FSB; low CRF & high FSB; and high CRF & high FSB were 0.88 (0.65-1.20), 0.89 (0.71-1.13), and 0.62 (0.48-0.80) respectively.
Conclusions
In a general male Caucasian population, a combination of high fitness levels and frequent sauna baths is associated with a substantially lowered future pneumonia risk compared with each modality alone. The implications of these findings in altering COVID-19 disease or its severity deserve study.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher (CC BY).
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