Sedentary arthritis patients risk disability
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Few women with arthritis of the hip may be getting the exercise they need to prevent disability, researchers from Japan report.
Moderate-intensity activity can help ease pain, boost function and stave off disability in people with osteoarthritis, Dr. Soichiro Hirata and colleagues from the Kobe University School of Medicine write. However, a few studies have suggested physical inactivity is common among osteoarthritis sufferers, and may be linked to worse pain, poor health and psychosocial problems.
“Identifying inactive patients is important because they are at risk for disability and are expected to benefit most from increasing their physical activity,” Hirata and his team point out.
To investigate, Hirata and his team measured physical activity in 65 women with severe osteoarthritis of the hip. All agreed to use an activity monitor known as an acceleration sensor, which is worn at the waist and tracks activity as well as its intensity.
The researchers found major differences in activity levels among the participants, with the most active women spending nearly eight times as much time on the move as the most sedentary participants. Just nine of the women spent more than 30 minutes a day in moderate-intensity activity. Twenty-eight patients, or 38 percent, were classified as inactive. Compared to the rest of the participants, these women spent 5.6 minutes in moderate activity daily vs. 22.9 minutes.
The inactive patients were older, walked more slowly and more likely to have severe, or end-stage, arthritis.
Among women with the severest arthritis, those who were unemployed were more likely to be inactive. But arthritis severity did not influence the likelihood of inactivity in women who were employed. It’s not clear, Hirata and his team note, whether employment itself helped these women to stay active, or whether their higher levels of activity allowed them to function well enough stay on the job.
The researchers call for public health efforts to encourage older people with osteoarthritis to be more active.
SOURCE: Journal of Rheumatology, May 2006.
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