Abstract
BackgroundMost people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are physically inactive. An accelerometer worn on the waist has been used to evaluate physical activity in people with chronic conditions. It is useful for evaluating moderate to vigorous activity, although it tends to underestimate light or mild activities such as housework or family duties. An accelerometer worn on the wrist (i.e., actigraph) has recently been used to capture daily physical activity in inactive individuals. The purposes of this study were to investigate physical activity measured by an actigraph in patients with RA and in healthy individuals and to investigate the association between actigraphic data and self-reported physical function.MethodsThe subjects were 20 RA patients and 20 healthy individuals. All participants wore an actigraph on their wrist for 6–7 consecutive days. They also completed the Health Assessment Questionnaire disability index (HAQ-DI) and the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) 36-item short form health survey (SF-36). We extracted three parameters from the actigraphic data: mean activity count (MAC), peak activity count (PAC), and low activity ratio (LAR). These three parameters were compared between the RA patients and healthy individuals and with the self-reported questionnaires.ResultsThe MAC was significantly lower and the LAR was significantly higher in RA patients than in healthy individuals. The PAC was not different between the two groups. The LAR was negatively correlated with the MAC for the RA patients and for the healthy individuals. The decrease ratio of the LAR with the increase of the MAC for the RA patients was twice that of the healthy participants. In the RA patients, the LAR was significantly and moderately correlated with the HAQ-DI score and two dimensions of the SF-36 (i.e., “physical functioning” and “bodily pain”).ConclusionInvestigation of the proportion of low activity count using an actigraph may be useful to identify characteristics of the physical function in RA patients.
Highlights
Most people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are physically inactive
RA patients varied in disease duration, radiographic evaluation, and disease activity
The mean activity count (MAC) was significantly lower and the low activity ratio (LAR) was significantly higher in RA patients than in healthy individuals
Summary
Most people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are physically inactive. An accelerometer worn on the waist has been used to evaluate physical activity in people with chronic conditions. An accelerometer worn on the wrist (i.e., actigraph) has recently been used to capture daily physical activity in inactive individuals. The purposes of this study were to investigate physical activity measured by an actigraph in patients with RA and in healthy individuals and to investigate the association between actigraphic data and self-reported physical function. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic, progressive inflammatory disease characterized by swelling, pain, and deformity of the joints. The benefits of engaging in physical activity are well established for maintaining joint health and functional ability and for decreasing the severity of other chronic health conditions in RA patients [2, 3].
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