Do Therapeutic Exercises Improve Kinesophobia and Health-Related Quality of Life in Adult Hemophilia Patients? A randomized controlled trial.

Abstract

Objectives: Pain, risk of injury and physical limitations lead to the development of kinesophobia and decrease in health-related quality of life in hemophilia patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of therapeutic exercises on kinesophobia and health-related quality of life in adult hemophilia patients. Material and Methods: A total of 24 patients aged 18 to 42 years were included in the study. Patients were randomly allocated to the control and exercise groups.Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK) was used for evaluation of kinesiophobia, Short Form-36 (SF-36) and Haemophilia Adult Quality of Life (Hem-A-Qol) were used to assess health related quality of life. These evaluation scales were applied on the participants of both groups before and at the end of the study. Therapeutic exercises were administered to the exercise group three days a week for two months. Results: At baseline in physical, sociodemographic-clinical data, SF-36 and Hem-A-Qol scores there was not a significant difference between groups (p>0.05). However in kinesophobia level, there was a significant difference in favor of the control group (p<0.05). After the exercise program, there was a significant decrease in kinesophobia and increase in total SF-36 score in the exercise group compared to the control group (p<0.05). However there was a decrease clinically in favor of the exercise group in total Hem-A-Qol value, whereas this difference was not statistically meaningful (p>0.05). Conclusions: Therapeutic exercises are simple and safe treatment modalities that can be used to improve kinesophobia and health-related quality of life in adult hemophilia patients. This improvement can be attributed to physical wellness caused by exercises.