Current and Maintained Health‐Enhancing Physical Activity in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Cross‐Sectional Study

Abstract

Objective. To describe and identify the explanatory factors of variation in current and maintained health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA) in persons with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods. In this cross-sectional study, current HEPA was assessed with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and maintained HEPA with the Exercise Stage Assessment Instrument, the latter explicitly focusing on both aerobic physical activity and muscle strength training. Sociodemographic, disease-related, and psychosocial data were retrieved from the Swedish Rheumatology Quality (SRQ) registers and a postal questionnaire. The explained variations in the respective HEPA behaviors were analyzed with logistic regression. Results. In all, 3,152 (58.5%) of 5,391 persons identified as eligible from the SRQ registers responded to the questionnaire. Current HEPA was reported by 69%, and maintained HEPA by 11% of the respondents. The most salient and consistent factors explaining variation in both current and maintained HEPA were self-efficacy, social support, and outcome expectations related to physical activity. Conclusion. To our knowledge, this is the first study exploring maintained physical activity in a large well-defined sample of persons with RA. Our results indicate that a minority perform maintained HEPA, including both aerobic physical activity and muscle strength training, and that psychosocial factors are the most salient and consistent in the explanation of HEPA variation.

Trajectories of Physical Activity Over Two Years in Persons With Rheumatoid Arthritis

“…One reason for the disparate findings in previous studies may be the different study designs and methods of measurement. Our study used a longitudinal prospective design, and perhaps maintained physical activity over 2 years cannot be predicted by the same variables as current levels of physical activity at one time point, which has been demonstrated in our previous study using retrospective data on maintained physical activity (9).…”

“…Many people with RA do not reach or maintain the recommended HEPA levels (8,9) and are less physically active than the general population (10,11). To explain and possibly influence physical activity behavior, numerous correlates in different domains have been identified in the general population (12) and in RA (13).…”

“…To explain and possibly influence physical activity behavior, numerous correlates in different domains have been identified in the general population (12) and in RA (13). For RA, psychosocial variables are stronger correlates of physical activity behavior than disease-related and sociodemographic ones (9,13,14). Self-efficacy, defined as a person's confidence in performing a specific behavior (15), and motivation for being physically active seem to be among the key variables.…”

Physical activity and fatigue in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – A population based study

“…IPAQ has been used to assess physical activity in various diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis [49] and HIV [50], but there are limited data on subjects with COPD [51]. Inal-Ince et al reported that a subject's GOLD stage, change of heart rate during exercise and orthopnea are independently associated with physical inactivity (defined as the sitting time in IPAQ).…”

High Disease Activity May Increase Fear-Avoidance Beliefs in Rheumatoid Arthritis

“…All scores dichotomized as low (mFABQ physical activity score [0-6], mFABQ work score [0][1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] and mFABQ total score [0-18]) or high (mFABQ physical activity score [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24], mFABQ work score and mFABQ total score ) according to medians of a previous study. 19 All patients were literate and none of the patients had pathological finding in the examinations that may influence the questionnaire. Demographic features, duration of education, smoking habits, occupation, body mass index, visual analog scores of pain, fatigue and patients global health, duration of disease related symptoms, comorbid illnesses (hypertension, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, cardiovascular diseases, coronary artery diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, chronic renal disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus), and number of lost days being unable to work due to pain during last month were collected from all patients.…”