Recorded presentation

Pamela A. Semanik, PhD APN, Arthritis Division, Northwestern University, 345 East Superior, Suite 908, Chicago, IL 60612, 312-238-3220, pseman1@uic.edu, JoEllen Wilbur, PhD, RN, FAAN, College of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago, 845 S. Damen, Chicago, IL 60612, James Sinacore, PhD, Department of Preventive Medicine & Epidemiology, Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, 2160 South First Avenue, Maywood, IL 60153, and Rowland W. Chang, MD, MPH, Northwestern University Medical School, 680 North Lake Shore Drive, Suite 1102, Chicago, IL 60611.

Physical activity is a widely recommended strategy for controlling the disease consequences of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a disease most prevalent in midlife women. Purpose: To identify the physical activity behaviors most often performed by women (> 60 yrs) with RA, stratified by health status. Subjects included 185 cognitively intact, ambulatory women from an urban university arthritis center. Methods: Participants completed a survey questionnaire assessing age, RA symptoms (checklist), health status (SF-36), and physical activity (Yale Physical Activity Survey). Women were divided into quartiles by physical health status (HS), and the mean values of the best quartile were compared with those from the other three quartiles combined. Results: Women (mean age = 70 years; mean disease duration = 17.7 yrs) with the best physical HS had significantly fewer RA symptoms (t = 7.76, df = 183, p= 0.0001). The HS groups did not significantly differ in mean age or the number of hours/week spent engaged in the following physical activity categories: housework, caregiving, planned exercises, leisure activities. However, women with better HS expended significantly more kilocalories in activities from the planned exercise category (t = 2.69, df = 139, p = 0.008), suggesting engagement in higher intensity activities. Conclusion: While differences in HS were not associated with differences in time spent engaged in housework, caregiving, planned exercise or leisure activities, women engaged in higher intensity planned exercise reported better HS. Either higher intensity physical activity leads to better HS and/or improved HS allows RA women to benefit more from planned exercise.

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