BACKGROUND: Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) report exercise barriers as stigma-related stress, lack of peer support, and facility issues. Resistance exercise (RE) with peer support and bands/ball and digitally-based supervision (REPS w/BANDS) was designed to help mitigate exercise barriers. Underscored by self-determination theory (SDT), the 12-week intervention was remotely delivered via digital technology and inclusive of peer support. PURPOSE: The purposes of this pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) were to test the feasibility and acceptability of REPS w/BANDS and explore signals of within- and between-group differences on outcomes (eg, depressive symptoms and fitness). METHODS: Participants (N = 25) were adult women with a confirmed diagnosis of PCOS. Participants were recruited using ResearchMatch and randomized into the intervention group (IG; n = 12), which received biweekly supervised RE training and individual- and group-level peer support, or the control group (CG; n = 13), which received weekly PCOS-specific educational modules via email. RESULTS: Participants were 37.28 (+/- 10.12) years, mostly White (64%), employed full-time (72%), and married (56%). Participants had a body mass index (BMI) of 33.76 kg/m2 (+/- 10.39), at least one comorbidity, and poor muscular endurance as compared to normative data for age. Feasibility was 86% for recruitment (eligible potential participants), the IG attended 78% of 288 total sessions, and retention in the IG and CG were 92% and 85%, respectively. The overall acceptability rating was 4.21 (+/- 0.50) on a 5.00 scale for the IG and 4.05 (+/- 0.83) for the CG with 4.00 equating good acceptability. While the RCT was not adequately powered, the comparison of means and percent changes for pre-post measures of the IG revealed statistically significant improvements. CONCLUSION: REPS w/BANDS was feasible and acceptable to participants. The next step is a fully powered RCT to evaluate within- and between-group differences in outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT06629883

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

• DOI
• publisher