RESEARCH ARTICLE
Exercise Improves the Impact of Chronic Pain in Older Adults: Results of an RCT
Mauro Giovanni Carta1, Fernanda Velluzzi2, *, Marco Monticone2, Cesar Ivan Aviles Gonzalez3, Luigi Minerba4, Massimiliano Pau5, Mario Musu4, Laura Atzori4, Caterina Ferreli4, Alberto Cauli6, Sergio Machado7, Elisa Pintus4, Dario Fortin8, Ferdinando Romano9, Maria Pietronilla Penna10, Antonio Preti11, Giulia Cossu4
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2022Volume: 15
E-location ID: e187638632202070
Publisher ID: e187638632202070
DOI: 10.2174/18763863-v15-e2202070
Article History:
Received Date: 8/8/2021Revision Received Date: 9/11/2021
Acceptance Date: 7/12/2021
Electronic publication date: 01/04/2022
Collection year: 2022
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Chronic Pain (CP) is a crucial determinant for disability in older adults. CP amplifies the impact of other common age-related diseases and increases cardiovascular risk. Physical exercise can improve CP. Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) with high-intensity exercise in older adults excluded people with Moderate Chronic Illness (MCI) and CP.
Objective:
This study aimed at evaluating in an RCT whether moderate exercise training can improve chronic pain in a sample of older adults, including people with MCI, and if any modification persists over time.
Methods:
A sample of 120 older adults was randomly selected for a moderate-intensity exercise program or cultural activities (control group). Chronic pain was assessed at t0, at t12 (end of the trial), and t48 weeks, by means of the Italian version of the SIP-Roland Scale.
Results:
Seventy-nine participants completed the follow-up (age 72.3±4.7, women 55.3%). At the end of RCT, an improvement in the SIP scale score was found in the exercise group (p=0.035), showing a lower score than the control group; this difference was not maintained at 48 weeks (p=0.235).
Conclusion:
Our study highlighted that a moderate-intensity exercise intervention reduced chronic pain in older adults, but this effect disappeared at follow-up after 36 weeks from the end of the training program. These findings suggested that such kinds of programs, easily accessible to old people even with MCI, should be implemented and supported over time, thus promoting active aging and preventing CP of age-related diseases.
Clinical Trial Registration: Clinical.Trials.gov.NCT03858114
