The challenges of measuring physical activity and sedentary behaviour in people with rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

The importance of sufficient moderate-to-vigorous physical activity as a key component of a healthy lifestyle is well established, as are the health risks associated with high levels of sedentary behaviour. However, many people with RA do not undertake sufficient physical activity and are highly sedentary. To start addressing this, it is important to be able to carry out an adequate assessment of the physical activity levels of individual people in order that adequate steps can be taken to promote and improve healthy lifestyles. Different methods are available to measure different aspects of physical activity in different settings. In controlled laboratory environments, respiratory gas analysis can measure the energy expenditure of different activities accurately. In free-living environments, the doubly labelled water method is the gold standard for identifying total energy expenditure over a prolonged period of time (>10 days). To assess patterns of physical activity and sedentary behaviour in daily life, objective methods with body-worn activity monitors using accelerometry are superior to self-reported questionnaire- or diary-based methods.

Twenty four-hour sleep, movement and sedentary activity profiles in adults living with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A cross-sectional latent class analysis

“…Findings also highlight the importance of tailoring healthy lifestyle messages based on how individuals are actually spending their time sleeping, sitting and walking throughout their day. Ideally, the planning and implementation of supports to modify behaviours should be guided by objective measures of sleep and awake activities and adopt a shared-decision making approach to ensure that personal preferences and priorities are considered [21,51,59,64]. In addition, supports should be are informed by an understanding of potentially modi able personal or health related factors that could be acting as barriers or facilitators to behaviour change [65, 66, 67].…”

“…Additionally, little is know on how different combinations of objectively measured 24-hour sleep-movement patterns may be associate with meeting published evidence-based benchmarks for walking, Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity (MVPA) or 24-hour movement guidelines. It is also unknown how variations in 24-hour sleep-movement behaviors may be associated with or common determinants of health for people with RA such as personal, socio-economic, physical / mental health and other lifestyle characteristics [19,20,21].…”

Differences in Associated Factors of Sedentary Behavior by Diabetes Mellitus Status: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study

“…Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, studies on the association between arthritis and sedentary behavior are limited. Assessing physical activity levels in individuals with arthritis is challenging [46]. In addition, evidence regarding whether sedentary behavior worsens the outcomes of arthritis or whether increasing physical activity is beneficial is lacking [47].…”

Physical activity in rheumatoid arthritis—is it time to push the pace of change?

“…Measurement is key to evaluating the usefulness of PA interventions. The estimation of energy expenditure (called metabolic equivalents of tasks) in controlled laboratory environments and assessment of activity patterns in free-living environments are reviewed by Steultjens et al [ 27 ]. Body-worn sensors currently offer the best option to assess activity patterns in free-living environments, although implementation into clinical practice might be challenging.…”