Proof of concept of prehabilitation: a combination of education and behavioural change, to promote physical activity in people with FM 2023 McVeigh

Objectives

To establish proof of concept of a prehabilitation intervention, a combination of education and behavioural change, preceding a physical activity programme in people with fibromyalgia (FM).

Settings

Open-label, feasibility clinical trial.

Participants

Eleven people with FM (10 women).

Interventions

The prehabilitation intervention consisted of 4 weeks, 1 weekly session (~1 to 1.5 hours), aimed to increase self-efficacy and understand why and how to engage in a gentle and self-paced physical activity programme (6 weeks of walking with telephone support).

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Primary outcome was the acceptability and credibility of the intervention by means of the Credibility/Expectancy Questionnaire. Secondary outcomes comprised scales to measure FM severity, specific symptoms and sedentary behaviour. An exit interview was conducted to identify the strengths and weaknesses and barriers to the intervention.

Results

One participant dropped out due to finding the walking programme excessively stressful. Participants expected the intervention would improve their symptoms by 22%–38% but resulted in 5%–26% improvements. Participants would be confident in recommending this intervention to a friend who experiences similar problems. The interviews suggested that the fluctuation of symptoms should be considered as an outcome and that the prehabilitation intervention should accomodate these fluctuation. Additional suggestions were to incorporate initial interviews (patient-centred approach), to tailor the programmes to individuals’ priorities and to offer a variety of physical activity programmes to improve motivation.

Conclusions

This feasibility study demonstrated that our novel approach is acceptable to people with FM. Future interventions should pay attention to flexibility, symptoms fluctuation and patients support.

Open access, https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/7/e070609

 

The therapist is being paid byt the hour so it's definitely worthwhile for them

 

Pre-habilitation is an intervention of exercise and education done before surgery or invasive medical treatment.

Here, it seems to be before a walking program.

At least the researchers learned from 11 subjects that "symptoms fluctuate" and that in subsequent studies they would need to offer a wider range of activities to aide in motivation. (I think the Spanish "walking" researchers will be sad about this development.)

 

Proof of concept: if we come up with some appropriate pseudoscientific babble, we can manipulate the study to provide results that look good!