The key to helping people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) fight fatigue may be – literally and figuratively – a walk in the park, according to research presented at the 2015 American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting. Researchers from University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) found that modest exercise decreased fatigue and that a pedometer – plus a bit of guidance – helped increase the amount people exercised.
“Fatigue is one of the top-rated concerns; it has multiple sources and causes. We know from earlier studies that physical inactivity is associated with fatigue,” says lead study author Patricia Katz, PhD, a professor of medicine and health policy at UCSF. “We wanted an intervention that is simple, exportable and has few barriers to implementation.”
Katz and her team measured the activity level of 96 people with RA for one week, and had them fill out questionnaires. Then the participants were randomly divided into three groups. One group was educated on the need to be active. The second group was given a pedometer and a diary to record their daily steps. The third group got a pedometer, a step diary plus personalized daily step targets. The step targets were based on each person’s starting activity level and increased 10%every two weeks. Groups two and three also got phone calls every two weeks to collect the information from their step diaries.
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