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Age, BMI, disease activity determined RA patients’ physical activity
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Age, BMI and disease activity were risk factors that kept patients with rheumatoid arthritis from being physically active, while glucocorticoid therapy did not independently contribute to the inactivity, according to study results.
Researchers in the Netherlands studied 165 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA; 71% women) treated with or without glucocorticoids (GCs). Patient characteristics and cardiovascular parameters were recorded, and Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS28) was determined. The Sharp-van der Heijde score (SHS) was used on X-rays of hands and feet. The Stanford health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) and the short questionnaire to assess health-enhancing physical activity (SQUASH) measured physical disability and physical activity, respectively.
Based on calculations of adherence rates to recommendations on physical activity, patients were placed into categories of fully adhering, insufficiently adhering (less than recommended number of days per week) or inactive.
Recommended physical activity was fully adhered to by 44% of patients, while 34% were insufficiently physically active and 22% were considered inactive. Univariate analyses showed that higher DAS28 and SHS, GC therapy and cardiovascular risk factor presence had an association with lower total SQUASH physical activity scores.
“In a multivariate model, higher age, higher [BMI], higher DAS28 and higher SHS negatively influenced the score significantly; cardiovascular risk factors and [GC] therapy were no longer significantly influencing physical activity,” the researchers reported.
“This study shows that physical activity in RA patients is hampered by higher age, higher BMI, higher DAS28 and higher SHS,” the researchers concluded. “With correlation for age and disease activity, univariate associations of cardiovascular risk factors and GC therapy with physical activity disappeared. This indicates the GC therapy itself does not contribute to diminished physical activity, but that the negative impact of active RA, for which GCs probably have been prescribed (channeling bias), is important on physical activity.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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