Light physical exercise 'can help reduce arthritis-related disability'

A new study has shown the potentially beneficial impact that light physical activity can have on preventing disabilities among people with or at risk of arthritis.

Conducted by Northwestern University in the US, the British Medical Journal-published research revealed that light exercise can have an impact on physical function, just as moderate and vigorous activities can. It may mean older people could see tangible benefit from low-impact tasks such as pushing a shopping trolley or vacuum cleaner.

The study involved a group of almost 1,700 adults aged between 45 and 79 from the Osteoarthritis Initiative study. All patients were free of disability, but were at elevated risk for developing it due to knee osteoarthritis or risk factors for the disease such as obesity.

Subjects were given accelerometers to wear for about a week in order to measures the intensity of their movements. Two years after collecting results from the device, participants were surveyed and asked about the development of disabilities.

It was found that greater time spent performing light-intensity activities was linked to lower rates of disability, even after accounting for the amount of moderate exercise these people engaged in.

Those who spent more than four hours per day doing light activities saw a more than 30 per cent reduction in the risk for developing disability, compared to those spending three hours or less each day engaged in such activities.

Lead author Dorothy Dunlop, professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said: "We were delighted to see that more time spent during the day simply moving your body even at a light intensity may reduce disability.

"Now people with health problems or physical limitations who cannot increase the intensity of their activity have a starting place in the effort to stay independent."

A spokeswoman for Arthritis Research UK said: "This study provides yet more proof that exercise and keeping active is one of the best things that people with arthritis or at risk of arthritis can to do keep themselves and their joints and muscles strong and healthy."