Repeatability of dyspnea measurements during exercise in women with obesity

While the 0-10 Borg scale to rate perceived breathlessness (RPB) is widely used to assess dyspnea on exertion, the repeatability of RPB in women with obesity is unknown. We examined the repeatability of RPB in women with obesity during submaximal constant-load cycling following at least 10 weeks of normal daily life. Seventeen women (37 ± 7 yr; 34.6 ± 4.5 kg/m²) who rated their breathlessness as 3 on the Borg scale (i.e., “moderate”) during 60 W submaximal cycling repeated the same test following 19 ± 9 weeks of normal living. Mean body weight (93.8 ± 16.1 vs. 93.6 ± 116.8 kg, p = 0.94) and RPB (3.0 ± 0.0 vs. 3.1 ± 1.4, p = 0.80) did not differ between pre- and post-normal living periods. We demonstrate that subjective ratings of breathlessness are repeatable for the majority of subjects and can be used to accurately assess DOE during submaximal constant-load cycling in women with obesity.