ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND Gaps existing in relation to the effect of exercise in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) has led to the execution of such exhaustive search. As AR a disabling chronic disease, subjects who endure need to know the effectiveness  of coadjuvant therapies that will improve their quality of life.

OBJECTIVE Assess the effectiveness of exercise in patients with RA.

METHODS OF SEARCH To extract the possible outcomes, it has carried out searches in the following sources: clinical practice guidelines (Health Guide, NICE, RNAO, National Guideline Clearing House), systematic reviews (Cochrane, PubMed Health Review, Cochrane Abstracts, CRD, BMJ) metasearch (Portal evidence, PubMed Health, Trip, Epistemonikos, NHS evidence, PREEVID), database (PubMed, CINALH, MEDES, CUIDEN IME).

SELECTION CRITERIAS The inclusion criteria were established for the eligibility of documents: a) patients> 18 years with a diagnosis of AR and regardless of drug treatment which they followed, b) realization physical exercise ≥ 4 weeks and supervised by professional. Moreover, It was excluded the documents published before 2000, not approved by ethics committee or otherwise there wasn't a consent of subjects, such as the dependence of these were high.

MAIN RESULTS Execution of exercise seems to improve the quality of life of patients with RA, although these results do not count a high level of evidence. Likewise, It's noteworthy to mention that there is no risk of deterioration of the disease with exercise.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS Carrying out exercise is recommended for patients who endure RA, not only the beneficial effect this could have on the symptoms of the disease, moreover It can also contribute as distraction therapy, which also contribute to the improvement of the disease. And all of these will entail, therefore, an increase in the quality of life of patients.