The primary objective of our study was to evaluate the effect of 6-week-long isotonic and isometric hand exercises on pain, hand functions, dexterity and quality of life in women diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Our secondary objective was to assess the changes in handgrip strength and disease activity. This randomized, parallel, single-blinded 6-week intervention study enrolled 52 female patients between 40 and 70 years of age, who were diagnosed with RA according to American College of Rheumatology criteria, had disease duration of at least 1 year and had a stage 1-3 disease according to Steinbrocker's functional evaluation scale. Patients were randomized into isotonics and isometrics groups. Exercises were performed on sixth week. All patients were applied wax therapy in the first 2 weeks. Their pain was assessed with visual analog scale (VAS), their hand functions with Duruöz Hand Index (DHI), dexterity with nine hole peg test (NHPT) and quality of life with Rheumatoid Arthritis Quality of Life questionnaire (RAQoL). Dominant and non-dominant handgrip strengths (HS) were measured. Disease activity was determined by disease activity score (DAS 28). We evaluated the difference in the above parameters between baseline and 6 weeks by Wilcoxon paired t test. The study was completed with 47 patients (isotonics n = 23; isometrics n = 24). VAS, DHI, NHPT, and RAQoL scores significantly improved in both groups by the end of 6th week compared to the baseline scores of the study (for isotonics p = 0.036, p = 0.002; p = 0.0001, p = 0.003; for isometrics p = 0.021, p = 0.002, p = 0.005, p = 0.01, respectively). DAS 28 scores decreased in both exercise groups (p = 0.002; p = 0.0001, respectively), while isometrics showed a significant increase in dominant HS (p = 0.029), and isotonics showed a significant increase in non-dominant HS (p = 0.013). This study showed that isometric and isotonic hand exercises decrease pain and disease activity and improve hand functions, dexterity and quality of life as well as mildly increasing muscle strength in patients diagnosed as RA.

COVID-19 pandemic may lead to changes in stress, sleep, physical activity (PA), and pain intensity related to the pregnancy. The study aimed to investigate the perceived stress, quality of sleep, PA, and pain intensity of pregnant women who were advised to stay at home as much as they could to provide isolation during the pandemic. The study included 149 pregnant women between April and May 2020. Demographics were recorded; Perceived-Stress Scale (PSS), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF), and Numerical Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) were performed. According to social isolation duration, 79.2% of the participants were in social isolation for more than 21 days. Self-reported anxiety level was severe for 65.8% of participants. The mean PPS score (±SD) was 26.98±8.26, PSQI score was 6.14±2.87, IPAQ-SF score was 466.1±1421.28, and NPRS score was 4.42±2.65. When the participants were classified and compared according to the trimester, no statistical significance was found in PPS, PSQI, IPAQ-SF, and NPRS scores (p> 0.05). The correlation was low between PPS-PSQI scores (r=0.291, p0.001); NPRS and PSQI scores (r=0.198, p=0.016). As a conclusion, pregnant women reported moderate stress level, poor sleep quality, very low PA level, and moderate pain intensity in the pandemic.

No abstract