Abstract
Kargarfard M, Etemadifar M, Baker P, Mehrabi M, Hayatbakhsh R. Effect of aquatic exercise
training on fatigue and health-related quality of life in patients with multiple sclerosis.
Objective
To examine the effectiveness of aquatic exercise training on fatigue and health-related
quality of life (HRQOL) in women with multiple sclerosis (MS).
Design
Randomized controlled trial, 4-week and 8-week follow-up.
Setting
Referral center of a multiple sclerosis society.
Participants
Women (N=32) diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS (mean age ± SD, 32.6±8.0y) were
recruited into this study. After undergoing baseline testing by a neurologist, participants
were randomly assigned to either an intervention (aquatic exercise) or a control group.
Interventions
The intervention consisted of 8 weeks supervised aquatic exercise in a swimming pool
(3 times a week, each session lasting 60min).
Main Outcome Measures
At baseline, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks, fatigue and HRQOL were assessed by a blind assessor
using the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale and the Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-54
questionnaire, respectively. A mixed-model approach to repeated-measures analysis
of variance was used to detect within- and between-subject effects.
Results
Findings are based on 21 patients (10 from the exercise group and 11 from the control
group) who had data available on outcomes. There was no significant difference between
the 2 groups at the baseline. Patients in the aquatic exercise group showed significant
improvements in fatigue and subscores of HRQOL after 4 and 8 weeks compared with the
control group. Results obtained from the intention-to-treat analysis were consistent
with those of per-protocol analysis.
Conclusions
The findings suggest that aquatic exercise training can effectively improve fatigue
and HRQOL of patients with MS and should be considered in the management of this relatively
common public health problem.
Key Words
List of Abbreviations:
ANOVA (analysis of variance), BMI (body mass index), EDSS (Expanded Disability Status Scale), HRQOL (health-related quality of life), IMSS (Isfahan Multiple Sclerosis Society), ITT (intention-to-treat), MFIS (Modified Fatigue Impact Scale), MS (multiple sclerosis), MSQOL-54 (Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-54), RRMS (relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 18, 2012
Footnotes
Supported by a grant from the University of Isfahan.
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on the authors or on any organization with which the authors are associated.
In-press corrected proof published online on Jun 26, 2012, at www.archives-pmr.org.
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
