Participants in both groups will attend three educational sessions together after the baseline assessment (S1 Appendix ) (before the NW program starts for the experimental group). Participants will only know the result of the randomization after the education. Educational sessions will be conducted with groups of approximately 6–10 patients. Sessions will be facilitated by a physiotherapist, and will take place in the Faculty of Physiotherapy of The University of A Coruña. Different concepts and guidance related to asthma self-management will be addressed, based on an informative brochure built by the research team. This brochure will be provided to the participants at the end of the education component. If patients miss one session, they will be phone called to wonder about reasons, to be encouraged to assist next sessions and an individual education session will be scheduled to address the missed topic. Besides, patients should keep their usual care, namely attend their regular medical appointments, take the medication under prescription and follow physician recommendations as usual.
Participants in the NW group will additionally enrol in an eight-week NW program [35 (link)] of three sessions per week (total of 24 sessions). Feasibility of the NW program has previously been tested in four patients, who showed a good acceptance and satisfaction with intervention received [34 ]. Each session will last one hour and include: a warm-up period of 15 minutes with articular mobility, body-weight exercises with walking poles, and five minutes of walking without poles; 30 minutes of NW, with an intensity of 70–85% theoretical maximum heart rate (HRmax = 206.9 –(0.7 x age)) [36 (link)]; cold-down period of five minutes of relaxed walk without poles, stretching and breathing exercises. NW program will be provided by the same physiotherapist in charge of the educational component, who was trained in NW in Finland. When participants fail one exercise session, he/she will be called to wonder about reasons and to be encouraged to participate in the next session. After finishing the eight-week period, participants will be encouraged to continue by themselves the NW sessions and a pair of poles will be provided to achieve this objective.
Participants in the NW group will additionally enrol in an eight-week NW program [35 (link)] of three sessions per week (total of 24 sessions). Feasibility of the NW program has previously been tested in four patients, who showed a good acceptance and satisfaction with intervention received [34 ]. Each session will last one hour and include: a warm-up period of 15 minutes with articular mobility, body-weight exercises with walking poles, and five minutes of walking without poles; 30 minutes of NW, with an intensity of 70–85% theoretical maximum heart rate (HRmax = 206.9 –(0.7 x age)) [36 (link)]; cold-down period of five minutes of relaxed walk without poles, stretching and breathing exercises. NW program will be provided by the same physiotherapist in charge of the educational component, who was trained in NW in Finland. When participants fail one exercise session, he/she will be called to wonder about reasons and to be encouraged to participate in the next session. After finishing the eight-week period, participants will be encouraged to continue by themselves the NW sessions and a pair of poles will be provided to achieve this objective.
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