A recently published study in the Arthritis Care and Research journal, the allocating time of sedentary behavior to either light physical activity (LPA) or moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was concerned with improved quality of life and lower disease effects in women with fibromyalgia as shown in the regression models.

We are already aware of the deleterious health effects of sedentary time (ST) in fibromyalgia. But, there is limited evidence regarding how replacing ST with physical activity (PA) of a different intensity may be concerned with health in this condition. Gavilán-Carrera B et al. performed this study to assess the relationship of quality of life and disease impact upon substituting ST with LPA or MVPA.

A total of 407 women with fibromyalgia aged 51.4 ± 7.6 years were included in this study. Triaxial accelerometry was used to evaluate the time spent in ST and PA. A 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) and the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR) was used to study the quality of life. Isotemporal substitution analyses determined the relationship between substituting ST with an equivalent time of LPA or MVPA.

In the isotemporal model, swapping 30 min of ST with LPA was related with better bodily pain (B=0.55), vitality (B=0.74), and social functioning (B=1.45) of SF-36, along with better scores at all of domains (symptoms, function, overall impact, and total impact) of FIQR (B reaching from -0.95 to -0.27. Better physical role (B=2.30) and social functioning (B=4.11) of the SF-36 and function of FIQR (B=-0.73) were seen (all p<0.05) when ST was replaced with MVPA.