medwireNews: Findings from a randomized controlled trial provide further evidence to support the beneficial impact of physical activity in people with spondyloarthritis (SpA).
However, the study’s primary endpoint was not met, as the authors found that use of a wearable activity tracker (WAT) in addition to physical activity advice did not reduce the number of disease flares over a 12-week period.
The trial included 108 individuals with SpA who attended a briefing encouraging them to engage in physical activity, with advice from specialists, during which they were asked to schedule exercise sessions twice a week. Participants were then randomly assigned to wear a WAT or no WAT during weeks 0–12, and again during weeks 25–36, and all participants took part in 1 hour/week of coach-supervised exercise during this later period in addition to their scheduled twice weekly sessions.
As reported in The Journal of Rheumatology, the average number of moderate patient-reported flares (lasting 1–3 days) improved from baseline to week 12 in both groups, from 0.7 to 0.5 in the WAT group and from 1.0 to 0.5 in the control group. There was no significant between-group difference.
Similarly, the average number of persistent (>3 days) flares improved from 0.6 to 0.4 during the study period in the WAT group, and from 0.6 to 0.5 in the control group.
Participants in both groups experienced a significant improvement in 6-minute walk test results from baseline to week 12, 24, and 36, while BASDAI scores showed a numerical improvement that did not meet the threshold for statistical significance. Again, these outcomes did not significantly differ between the WAT and control groups.
While indicating no benefit of WAT use, “[t]he absence of a difference between the 2 groups suggests that [physical activity] advice might be sufficient to reduce the number of flares and disease activity, and to improve physical performance in patients with SpA,” say Christian Roux (CHU de Nice, France) and co-authors.
The researchers note that previous studies suggesting promise of WATs in people with rheumatic diseases included such devices as part of physical activity programs, which were compared with control interventions that did not include exercise sessions or advice.
“Thus, the effect of [physical activity] advice alone is difficult to assess in these studies,” they add.
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