A Game Console Promotes Joint Function in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients
Animated exercise programs using a game console can be a treatment option for patients with rheumatic diseases.
Scientists at the Charité Medical University - Berlin have investigated the question whether an animated home-based exercise program using a game console is feasible and worthy for regular, targeted training in rheumatic diseases. The current study shows that if patients with joint diseases are not physically active for reasons of insufficient time or due to poor accessibility of a physiotherapeutic practice, animated home exercise programs can contribute to the promotion of movement. The motivating aspect of a game console plays a central role regardless of patient’s age and duration of disease. The results of the study are published in the scientific journal BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. [1]
Use of a game console in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common form of chronic inflammatory joint disease. In order to maintain joint function and optimize the results from pharmacotherapy, as long as possible, physiotherapy and physical exercise are of central importance for rheumatoid patients. In everyday life, however, patients often complain about lack of guidance or lack of access to kinesiotherapy. Exercise programs using a game console can actually be an alternative, supportive option for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, as the scientists have now found out. "Compared to conventional physiotherapeutic exercises, we were able to detect similar effects. In addition, more fun can be added to the treatment concept, which increases therapies and thus the effectiveness, "explains Jan Zernicke, a study coordinator at the Charité Clinic for Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology.
The pilot study has been conducted over six months with two treatment groups at the Charité Medical University. Only patients with rheumatoid arthritis with low disease activity undergoing therapy with a biological drug have been included in the study. There were included 15 patients with a conventional hysiotherapeutic exercise program and another 15 patients with an animated home-based physical exercise program using a game console. After twelve weeks, the patients switched to the other treatment group for a treatment period of also twelve weeks. The advantages of time flexibility and entertaining seem to compensate the disadvantage of the non-guided and possibly non-optimal motion design.
An animated home-based physical exercise program as a treatment option for patients with rheumatoid arthritis
The evaluation of the results shows: Exercise programs for game console at home have quite a comparable to physiotherapy therapeutic effect. "Both groups showed the same improvements in physiological function tests after the therapy period. The total muscle strength increased by about twelve percent, and the walking distance increased by an average of five percent, "says Jan Zernicke. The results could encourage patients with rheumatic diseases to discuss with their physiotherapists and rheumatologists a supplementary treatment with this or similar animated exercise programs. The conception of “remote” physiotherapeutic care is no more fiction, so it can be performed from the distance using PC and webcam. It is already practiced in countries such as Canada and can be a complementary option for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
- J. Zernicke, C. Kedor, A. Müller, G. R. Burmester, A. Reißhauer, E. Feist. A prospective pilot study to evaluate an animated home-based physical exercise program as a treatment option for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. 2016 Aug 18; 17(1):351. doi: 10.1186/s12891-016-1208-3.