Effects of high-intensity interval training on health-fitness, health related quality of life, and psychological measures in college-aged smokers

Background – The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of high-intensity interval training on healthfitness, health related quality of life, and psychological measures in college-aged smokers. Methods – 40 college-aged male smokers were randomly assigned to 2 groups: a) HIIT group included high-intensity interval cycling training; b) Control group (CON) included participants without formal physical exercise. Intervention lasted for 8 weeks (3 sessions/week, and 33 minutes/session). HIIT group used 65-75% of maximal heart rate (HRmax) with a 20-min maximal work-out at 85%. The health-related quality of life (HRQOL) was assessed using the questionnaire WHOQOL-BREF and assessment of physical health parameters included hemodynamic, anthropometric, lung function and cardiorespiratory assessments. Results – Significant improvements in HIIT were seen in physical health (P=0.000), psychological state (P=0.001), social relationship (P=0.004), environment (P=0.000), resting heart rate (RHR) (P=0.000), systolic blood pressure (SBP) (P=0.007), rate pressure product (RPP) (P=0.000), mean arterial pressure (MAP) (P=0.000), waist (P=0.003), forced vital capacity (FVC) (P=0.001), forced expiratory volume (FEV) (P=0.027), peak expiratory flow (PEF) (P=0.000), (forced expiratory flow) FEF_25 (P=0.023), FEF_50 (P=0.007), FEF_75 (P=0.009), steps/min (P=0.000), VO2max (P=0.000) and heart rate recovery (HRrec) (P=0.000). Interestingly, significant reductions were seen in the CON group in environmental point (P=0.002), Weight (P=0.002), BMI (P=0.001), lean mass (P=0.024), FEV/FCV (P=0.014), PEF_50 (P=0.007) and FEF_75 (P=0.009). Conclusion – The high intensity interval training was effective to improve all dimensions of HRQOL, hemodynamic variables, lung function, and cardiorespiratory endurance indicators in college-aged smokers. Contrarily, this study further supports it is evident that smoking gradually results in unhealthy environmental habits, decreased body weight, BMI, and lean mass as well as significant reductions in lung function as observed in our study. This suggests that HIIT can be a preferred form of training for smokers willing to improve or restore their diminishing health components due to smoking. Additionally, this can be applied in clinical conditions to provide HIIT exercise intervention to smokers to yield healthier benefits over a short period of time during smoking cessation programs and/or rehabilitations.