Home-Based Exercise Benefits PAD Patients
A new home-based exercise program successfully helped patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) to walk farther and faster—and benefits continue to be seen up to 12 months later, according to a new study.
The study is the first to follow unsupervised exercise in PAD patients, and cites patient convenience and cost as the predominant advantages of home-based programs over programs set in a cardiac rehabilitation center.
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The program encouraged patients with PAD to walk at least 5 days a week, gradually building up to 50 minutes, and to cease exercise if leg pain occurred. When their legs were comfortable again, patients were to finish their walk.
To measure the long-term benefit of the program, researchers from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago compared walking ability in participants at 6 months and 1 year of follow-up.
During the first 6 months, 81 participants attended educational, weekly meetings on how to best adhere to the home program. They also received encouraging phone calls during months 7-12.
During the same period, 87 controls also participated, but attended meetings and received phone calls regarding health matters unrelated to PAD.
After 12 months of follow-up, home-based participants increased their average walking distance over a 6-minute period from 355.4 meters to 281.9 meters. Control participants distance decreased slightly from 353.1 meters to 245.6 meters.
According to researchers, walking is the most effective non-invasive treatment for PAD.
“Our results should encourage physicians to recommend walking even if their patients do not have access to a supervised-exercise program,” they concluded.
–Michael Potts
Reference
McDermott MM, Guralnik JM, Criqui MH, Ferrucci L, Zhao L, et al. Home‐based walking exercise in peripheral artery disease: 12‐month follow‐up of the goals randomized trial [published online ahead or print May 21, 2014. J Am Heart Assoc. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.113.000711