Traditionally, aerobic exercise was thought to exacerbate disease activity of individuals with RA. However, such exercises performed in water may provide cardiovascular conditioning with less repetitive loading of the involved joints. We investigated the effects of an aquaerobics program on exercise tolerance and disease activity on individuals with RA. Twenty-four subjects, 30 to 80 years of age and with functional class II or III RA, were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The aquaerobics group attended an aquaerobics class three times per week for 10 weeks while the range of motion (ROM) group participated in a 10-week home program of ROM and strengthening exercises. Pre and post-testing included treadmill stress testing, the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), and recording of active joint count (AJC), ESR and grip strength. Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed significant trial effects, but insignificant group effects for duration and peak workload on treadmill, AJC, ESR and grip strength. Unexpectedly, significantly greater improvements were found for the ROM group in selfreported walking ability and total HAO score. These findings suggest that participation in either program may result in improved exercise tolerance without exacerbating joint activity. Additional study is needed to determine the relative benefits on functional outcomes.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• PDF locator
• publisher