Effectiveness of exercise training on the dyspnoea of individuals with long COVID: A randomised controlled multicentre trial

•After COVID-19 infection, symptoms such as dyspnoea may persist.•In respiratory diseases, dyspnoea reduces health-related quality of life.•Physiotherapy and rehabilitation are both currently recommended in this context.•A 3-month course of exercise training rehabilitation (ETR) decreased dyspnoea.•Standard physiotherapy was not found to reduce dyspnoea or improve quality of life. COVID-19-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (CARDS) is a severe evolution of the Sars-Cov-2 infection and necessitates intensive care. COVID-19 may subsequently be associated with long COVID, whose symptoms can include persistent respiratory symptoms up to 1 year later. Rehabilitation is currently recommended by most guidelines for people with this condition. To evaluate the effects of exercise training rehabilitation (ETR) on dyspnoea and health-related quality of life measures in people with continuing respiratory discomfort following CARDS. In this multicentre, two-arm, parallel, open, assessor-blinded, randomised controlled trial, we enroled adults previously admitted with CARDS to 3 French intensive care units who had been discharged at least 3 months earlier and who presented with an mMRC dyspnoea scale score > 1. Participants received either ETR or standard physiotherapy (SP) for 90 days. The primary outcome was dyspnoea, as measured by the Multidimensional Dyspnoea Profile (MDP), at day 0 (inclusion) and after 90 days of physiotherapy. Secondary outcomes were the mMRC and 12-item Short-Form Survey scores. Between August 7, 2020, and January 26, 2022, 487 participants with CARDS were screened for inclusion, of whom 60 were randomly assigned to receive either ETR (n = 27) or SP (n = 33). Mean MDP following ETR was 42% lower than after SP (26.15 vs. 44.76); a difference of -18.61 (95% CI -27.78 to -9.44; p