JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

JIA is one of the most common chronic childhood conditions. Symptoms, which include joint pain, stiffness and inflammation, can significantly impact children’s health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and lead to a more sedentary lifestyle. According to recent guidelines for physical activity (PA) in JIA, structured PA interventions led to improved health outcomes. However, many specific PA programs such as yoga and aerobic dance have not yet been studied in this population despite being recommended by rheumatology organizations, and being popular among youth. Online PA programs could help to disseminate PA programs to patients in an accessible and affordable manner.

Objective:

The primary objectives of the proposed pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be to examine: (1) the feasibility of a full RCT to evaluate the effectiveness of two popular types of PA, a yoga training program and an aerobic dance training program, in female adolescents (13 to 18 years old) with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) compared to a wait list control group; and (2) the acceptability of these interventions.

Methods:

A three-arm prospective randomized open-label study with a parallel group design will be used. A total of 25 female adolescents with JIA who have pain will be randomized in a ratio of 2:2:1 to one of the three groups: 1) online yoga training program (Group A) (n=10), 2) online aerobic dance training program (Group B) (n=10) and 3) wait list control group (Group C) (n=5). Participants in groups A and B will complete three individual 1-hour sessions per week using online exercise videos, as well as one 1-hour virtual group session per week using a video-conferencing platform (GoToMeeting) for 12 weeks. These participants will also take part in weekly e-consultations with a research coordinator and discussions on Facebook with other participants. Participants from all groups will be given access to an electronic educational pamphlet on PA for arthritis developed by The Arthritis Society to review via an online platform. Feasibility (recruitment rate, self-reported adherence to the interventions, dropout rates, and percentage of missing data), acceptability and usability of Facebook and GoToMeeting will be assessed at the end of the program. Pain intensity (Primary outcome), participation in general physical activity, morning stiffness, functional status, fatigue, self-efficacy and patient global assessment will be assessed using self-administered electronic surveys at baseline and weekly until the end of the 12 weeks program.

Results:

Not applicable as this is a protocol and data collection has not started.

Conclusions:

To our knowledge this is the first study in paediatric patients to evaluate the feasibility of a full RCT to evaluate the effectiveness of yoga and aerobic dance as pain management interventions for female adolescents with JIA. The use of online programs to disseminate these two PA interventions may facilitate access to alternative methods of pain management in this population. This study can lead to a full-scale RCT. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov ID _NCT03833609__ , registration date _February 5, 2019___.