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Hypermobile fibromyalgia patients displayed greater balance problems
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Patients with fibromyalgia and hypermobility had greater balance problems than those without hypermobility, and they experienced significantly more falls than healthy controls in a recent study.
Researchers in Turkey conducted a retrospective study of 60 women with fibromyalgia and 30 healthy controls (mean age of all participants, 41.8 years) and assessed their balance and the impact it may have played on falls. Excluded from the study were patients who had undergone joint replacement, experienced stroke or had other conditions potentially affecting their balance within the past year.
The fibromyalgia group was divided into patients with hypermobility (n=30) and those without the condition (n=30). Researchers recorded outcome measures for disease duration, pain severity using visual analog scale (VAS) and disease activity based on the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) among this group.
Controls and fibromyalgia patients were assessed for incidence of falls in the previous 6 months, performance as measured by the 6-minute walk distance test (6MWD), balance using the one-legged balance test with eyes open and the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), and hypermobility determined by Beighton criteria.
Disease duration (P=.982), number of falls (P=.868) and VAS (P=.835) and FIQ (P=.515) scores were not significantly different between fibromyalgia groups. Patients with hypermobility had more falls than controls (P=.048), but the difference was not significant between fibromyalgia patients without hypermobility and controls (P=.055).
Although hypermobility did not significantly affect the number of falls (P=.159) or 6MWD test (P=.825) in univariate analysis, balance tests were significantly associated with it (P<.001).
“It can be suggested that [fibromyalgia] patients may have balance problems compared with healthy subjects and that hypermobility may have a negative effect on balance in these patients,” the researchers concluded. “In addition, it is known that the risk for falls increases dramatically with age. To clarify the impact of balance and hypermobility on fall frequency, future studies [that involve both sexes and] older [fibromyalgia] patients should be undertaken.”
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