Disability motivates patients with ankylosing spondylitis for more frequent physical exercise

Abstract

falkenbach A. Disability motivates patients with ankylosing spondylitis for more frequent physical exercise. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2003;84:382-3. Objective: To evaluate whether patients with ankylosing spondylitis who perform disease-specific exercises more frequently have fewer functional limitations and disability than those who exercise more often. Design: Cross-sectional; retrospective chart review. Setting: Rehabilitation center in Austria. Participants: A sample of 1500 patients with ankylosing spondylitis (1163 men, 337 women; mean age [plusmn] standard deviation, 50[plusmn]12y; disease duration, 21[plusmn]11y) grouped by how many times per week they performed disease-specific exercises for at least 5 minutes: group A (n=542), less than 1 time; group B (n=691), 1 to 3 times; and group C (n=267), more than 3 times. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Self-report of exercise frequency and a German version of the Health Assessment Questionnaire for the spondyloarthropathies (HAQ-S). Results: The HAQ-S showed significant differences among the groups (analysis of variance on ranks, P[lt ].001). In pairwise multiple comparison, group A showed significantly less disability (median, 0.5; interquartile range [IQR], 0.2[ndash ]0.8) than group B (median, 0.6; IQR, 0.3[ndash ]0.9) or group C (median, 0.7; IQR, 0.3[ndash ]1.0). Conclusion: Patients with less disability exercised less than their more disabled counterparts. The reasons for this difference, particularly the issue of motivation, deserve more attention. [copy ] 2003 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation