Background/Purpose: It is generally assumed that patients with chronic arthritis conditions tend to exercise less than what is currently recommended. Although several evidences support this contention in rheumatoid arthritis patients, there is little data on the level of daily physical activity (PA) in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients vs. healthy controls, using objective procedures, such as accelerometry. Moreover, there is currently no evidence that decisively answers an important question concerning PA vis-à-vis PsA: Does disease activity influence PA in PsA patients?

The purposes of this study were to compare PA in a group of PsA patients versus healthy controls through both objective (triaxial accelerometry) and subjective (International Physical Activity Questionnaire- IPAQ) methods, and to explore the impact of disease levels on PA in these patients. We also sought to determine the potential role of PA assessment as a measure of PsA disease activity.

Methods: A group of 53 PsA patients and 36 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were included in this cross-sectional study. PA was assessed by accelerometry and with iPAQ in both groups. We performed multiple regression analysis not only to compare PA between groups, but also to explore the relationship between PsA features, including disease activity (assessed by DAS28-ESR, DAS28-PCR and DAPSA) and PA. In a randomized group of 36 PsA patients a test/re-test study was carried out 6 month after the first evaluation in order to determine the correlation between variation in disease activity and PA.

Results: The number of minutes of moderate and vigorous activity (MVPA)/day, as evaluated by accelerometry and adjusted for sex, age work activity was similar in PsA patients and in healthy controls (40 ± 29 vs 33 ± 15 min/day, p=0.2). In PsA patients, accelerometry and IPAQ demonstrated concordance to a moderate degree. When PA between the two visits of PsA patients was compared, a significant differences in minutes of MVPA was found (40 ± 29 vs 30 ± 22 min/day, p=0.035). Interestingly, variations in PA, as measured by accelerometry, inversely correlated with RA disease activity by DAS28-PCR (r=-0.37, p= 0.04) and DAPSA (r=-0.43, P = 0.01). When this analysis was done assessing disease activity by DAS28-ESR, a similar, but not significant tendency was observed (r=-0.34, p= 0.07).

Conclusion: In PsA patients, accelerometry is a reliable technique to evaluate PA. This study not only showed that PsA patients spend similar time doing MVPA than healthy controls, but also PA, as assessed by accelerometry, was sensitive to any changes in disease activity.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/influence-of-disease-activity-in-the-physical-activity-of-psoriatic-arthritis-patients/