Resistance exercise on disease activity and functional recovery in rheumatoid arthritis: a Meta-analysis / 中华风湿病学杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo collect and analyze the literatures on resistance exercise in rheumatoid arthritis (RA),and to evaluate its effectiveness on functional recovery and disease activity.MethodsThe literatures,published on resistance exercise in RA patients indexed by Medline,Embase,OVID and other databases through January 2012,including unpublished literatures,were collected.All literature were enrolled based on the criterion of inclusion and exclusion.Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing resistance exercise with interventions without resistance training for RA patients were included. Outcome values withdrawn from literatures were pooled by the STATA 12.0 software.The heterogeneityand data quality were checked and categorized forMeta-analysis.The mean difference(MD) and 95％ confidence interval (CI)were calculated.ResultsA total of 10 related papers including 525 patients were included in this analysis.Resistance exercise improved isometric strength,isokinetic strength and grip strength.Moreover,disease activity score(DAS) [WMD=-0.585,95％CI (-0.878,-0.291)],erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) [WMD=-3.418,95％CI(-5.289,-1.546)],morning stiffness [WMD=-24.675,95％CI(-29.829,-19.520)],Ritchie joint index[WMD=-2.793,95％CI(-4.682,-0.905)],visual analog scale(VAS) [WMD=-1.412,95％CI(-2.646,-0.177)],health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) [WMD=-0.177,95％CI(-0.345,-0.009)],50-foot walk test [WMD=-2.539,95％CI (-4.260,-0.817)] were significantly different comparing with the control group.With respect to safety,no exercise related adverse events were found in any of the included studies.ConclusionBased on the evidence,as a safe rehabilitation therapy,resistance exercise can not only improve muscle strengh and physical ability,but can also decrease the disease activity levels of RA.