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Stories for Reprint
Global Study: People with RA Avoid Exercise
By Ferdous Al-Faruque, MARRTC Staff
Working out regularly is an important way to stay healthy, but a new multinational study is putting even greater emphasis on the need for people with rheumatoid arthritis to exercise.
The study found that physical activity varies greatly from country to country but generally people with rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, do not exercise on a weekly basis. In the study, the least active people with RA were in Argentina where only 10 percent exercised on a weekly basis. In comparison, people in Finland were the most active where 75 percent of the people with RA exercised at least once a week. The United States ranked eleventh in the study - about 30 percent of Americans with RA exercised every week.
The ongoing study is called Questionnaires in Standard Clinical Care of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis or Quest-RA. More than one hundred healthcare professionals and rheumatologists have collected data from 58 clinical sites in 21 countries around the world. So far, over 5200 people with RA have been entered into the study, under the direction of Tuulikki Sokka, PhD, a rheumatologist from Jyvaskyla, Finland.
Researchers found that in general, people with RA who have less mobility exercised less than people with greater mobility. Theodore Pincus, MD, one of the project's investigators, says that people with RA may need to modify their exercise program to suit their abilities. "If you have arthritis in your knees, you probably won't be a runner, but you might be a swimmer, or you might be a walker," he said. However he also added that, "exercise is good for everybody including people with RA."
Exercising can strengthen muscles around the joints affected by RA, which can provide more support to those joints. Other research has shown that not only does exercise improve symptoms in people with various forms of arthritis, but also reduces their likelihood of developing other diseases.
Pincus, who is also director of Outcome Research at New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases, says that often people with RA are told by health professionals to limit their physical exercise or avoid it altogether to protect their joints. "It's not protection at all," he added. "Because it's not good for people." An important message of the research is for doctors to encourage patients with RA to exercise.
People with rheumatoid arthritis who are interested in exercising should consult their healthcare professional before starting any exercise program. There are also organizations that can help people find an appropriate exercise program, such as the Arthritis Foundation at www.arthritis.org.
Over two million Americans are estimated to have RA, where the body's immune system fails and attacks the joints. Though this potentially debilitating disease is most common in older adults and women, people of all ages can develop the disease.
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