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Status unknownNCT05240326Updated Mar 3, 2022

The Effects of Pilates Training on Exercise Capacity and Respiratory Muscle Performance in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis

An interventional study of exercise training group and control training group in Rheumatoid Arthritis, sponsored by Gazi University. Status unknown at 1 site in Turkey. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-03-03.

Sponsored by Gazi University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Feb 2022), so the status shown — last known as Not yet recruiting — may be out of date.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
30
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease associated with significant functional impairment and increased risk for cardiovascular and pulmonary disease. Along with pharmacological therapy, exercise seems to be a very promising intervention to improve disease-related outcomes, including functional capacity and systemic manifestations. Despite the fact that aerobic and strengthening exercises have been shown to be useful in patients with RA, there have been limited research on the effects of pilates training. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effect of clinical pilates training on exercise capacity, respiratory and peripheral muscle strength, respiratory muscle endurance, respiratory function, pain, balance, core stability, dyspnea, functional status, fatigue, quality of life, depression and anxiety in patients with RA.

Read the detailed description

According to sample size calculation 30 patients with RA will be included. Patients will be evaluated before and after treatment. Patients will be randomized into exercise and control training groups. In the exercise training group the patients will be given pilates exercise; in the control training group, the patients will be given relaxation exercise. Pilates exercises will be applied by the physiotherapist 3 days a week for 8 weeks. The patients in the control training group will be given relaxation exercises as a home exercise program 3 days a week for 8 weeks. Exercise capacity, pulmonary functions, respiratory and peripheral muscle strength, respiratory muscle endurance, pain, balance, core stability, dyspnea, functional status, fatigue, quality of life, depression and anxiety will be evaluated.

02

Conditions studied

  • Rheumatoid Arthritis

Keywords

  • rheumatoid arthritis
  • respiratory muscle strength
  • respiratory muscle endurance
  • exercise capacity
03

In context

Arthritis

3,554 studies on the registry are indexed under Arthritis; 317 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 30 is below the median of 90 across 2,377 interventional studies indexed under Arthritis.

Browse Arthritis studies →

Lead sponsor

Gazi University is the lead sponsor of 531 studies on the registry; 99 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • 18-65 years old
  • Being diagnosed according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR)/EULAR 2010 rheumatoid arthritis diagnostic criteria
  • under standard medications

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • orthopedic or neurological disease with a potential to affect functional capacity
  • have problems that can prevent evaluation
  • have a neurological problem that may cause hearing or vision impairment
  • changes in medical treatment in the last 3 months
  • have high disease activity score (DAS-28>3.2)
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Participant)
Enrollment
30 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    exercise training group

    Clinical pilates exercises

    Other: exercise training group

  • Sham comparator
    control training group

    Relaxation exercises

    Other: control training group

Interventions

  • Otherexercise training group

    All exercise program will be applied during supervised session by a physiotherapist. Clinical pilates exercises will be performed three days in a week. Treatment will continue an hour in per session for 8 weeks. The program consisted of 10 minutes warm-up exercises, clinical pilates-based exercises on mat for 40 minutes and 10 minutes relaxation and stretching exercises.

  • Othercontrol training group

    The control group will be followed up as a home program by giving the relaxation exercises. Patients will be asked to do the exercises regularly for 3 days/week, 1 sessions/day, for eight weeks. Patients in the control group will be followed up by phone once a week.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Respiratory muscle strength

    Maximal inspiratory and expiratory muscle strength will be evaluated using mouth pressure device.

    Time frame: First day

  2. Respiratory muscle endurance

    It will be assessed using an incremental threshold loading test, in which patients began with a load of 30% of maximum inspiratory pressure and increased by 10% every 2 minutes.

    Time frame: First day

  3. Functional exercise capacity

    It will be evaluated with 6-minute walking test according to the American Thoracic Society and European Respiratory Society criteria.

    Time frame: First day

  4. Pulmonary functions contains dynamic lung volumes

    Spirometry will be used to perform pulmonary function testing in accordance with the American Thoracic Society and European Respiratory Society guidelines.

    Time frame: First day

Secondary outcomes

  1. Peripheral muscle strength

    Upper and lower extremity muscle strength using portable hand held dynamometer, hand grip strength using grip dynamometer will be evaluated.

    Time frame: Second day

  2. Pain level

    It will be assessed using with Visual Analog Scale (VAS). VAS is a scale which consists of a 100-millimetre scale ranging from 0 (no pain at all) to 100 (worst imaginable pain). A higher score indicates greater pain intensity.

    Time frame: First day

  3. Balance

    The "Biodex Balance System®" will be used to test static balance. As a consequence of the test, the system will provide the general stability index, anterior/posterior (AP) stability index, medial/lateral (ML) stability index, and their standard deviations.

    Time frame: Second day

  4. Core stability

    "Core" endurance and "core" power are the specific components of "core" stability and will be evaluated separately. Core muscle endurance times will assessed by using trunk extension, trunk flexion, and side bridge tests. Core power will assessed by using sit-ups ve modified push-ups tests.

    Time frame: Second day

  5. Dyspnea

    The Modified Medical Research Council (MMRC) dyspnea scale will be used to determine the perception of dyspnea during activities of daily living. Dyspnea is graded as: zero (shortness of breath with strenuous exercise only); one (shortness of breath when rushing or walking up a slight uphill); two (because of shortness of breath they walk slower than people of the same age or have to stop to breathe while walking at their own pace); three (stops to breathe after walking 100 meters or after a few minutes); and four (too short of breath to leave the house or shortness of breath when getting dressed).

    Time frame: First day

  6. Functional status

    Functional status will be assessed by Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ). HAQ consists of 20 questions, each question is scored between 0-3. A high score indicates poor functional status.

    Time frame: First day

  7. Fatigue

    Fatigue will be evaluated using Turkish version of Fatigue Severity Scale. This questionnaire includes 9 items and score range for each item from 1 to 7 point (7-point Likert scale). Fatigue Severity Scale score is calculates by deriving an arithmetic mean. Cut-scores of over 4 are indicative of significant fatigue (higher scores show more severe fatigue).

    Time frame: Second day

  8. Disease Specific Quality of Life

    Quality of life will be evaluated using Turkish version of the Rheumatoid Arthritis Quality of Life (RAQoL) questionnaire. This questionnaire includes 30 items, each question is scored 0 (no) or 1 (yes). A high score indicates poor quality of life.

    Time frame: Second day

  9. Anxiety and depression

    Anxiety and depression will be evaluated using Turkish version of Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) scale. HAD scale uses to determine the risk group of patients in terms of anxiety ad depression and consists of 14 questions. Lowest score that patients can get from both subscales is 0, the highest score 21. The cut-off points for the Turkish version of the HAD scale were 10 for the anxiety subscale (HAD-A) and 7 for the depression subscale (HAD-D).

    Time frame: Second day

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Gazi University
    Ankara, Turkey
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Yentur SB, Atas N, Ozturk MA, Oskay D. Comparison of the effectiveness of pilates exercises, aerobic exercises, and pilates with aerobic exercises in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Ir J Med Sci. 2021 Aug;190(3):1027-1034. doi: 10.1007/s11845-020-02412-2. Epub 2020 Oct 22. PubMed 33094465 ↗
  • Byrnes K, Wu PJ, Whillier S. Is Pilates an effective rehabilitation tool? A systematic review. J Bodyw Mov Ther. 2018 Jan;22(1):192-202. doi: 10.1016/j.jbmt.2017.04.008. Epub 2017 Apr 26. PubMed 29332746 ↗
  • Silva HJA, Lins CAA, Nobre TTX, de Sousa VPS, Caldas RTJ, de Souza MC. Mat Pilates and aquatic aerobic exercises for women with fibromyalgia: a protocol for a randomised controlled blind study. BMJ Open. 2019 Feb 19;9(2):e022306. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-022306. PubMed 30782866 ↗
  • Kucukdeveci AA. Nonpharmacological treatment in established rheumatoid arthritis. Best Pract Res Clin Rheumatol. 2019 Oct;33(5):101482. doi: 10.1016/j.berh.2019.101482. Epub 2020 Jan 25. PubMed 31987686 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Mar 3, 2022, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05240326
Lead sponsor
Gazi University
Responsible party
Selin Bayram (Principal Investigator, Gazi University) — Principal investigator
First posted
Feb 15, 2022
Start date
Mar 15, 2022 (estimated)
Primary completion
Mar 2024 (estimated)
Completion
Mar 15, 2024 (estimated)
Last update
Mar 3, 2022

Study contacts

Selin Bayram, Msc
Contact
selinbayram94@gmail.com
+905327001805
Deran Oskay, Prof
study director · Gazi University

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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