Physical Activity in Young Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis Patients - A case-control study

Abstract

Background: Physical activity (PA) is known to be beneficial in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS); nevertheless, previous studies report lower PA rates among these patients. This study aims to assess PA in Relapsing-remitting MS (RR-MS) patients and correlate it with PA from healthy controls (HC). We aim also to access the correlation of PA with fatigue and sleep health. Methods: Objective PA was measured during a 7-day period in which 23 RR-MS patients (EDSS<4.0) and 21 matched HC used a Xiaomi Mi Band 5® armband (MiBand), which reported daily step count, kilometer (km) count, active time, hours of sleep and sleep score. Subjective assessment was derived from self-reporting International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) long version. Quality of sleep and fatigue in RR-MS patients were assessed using the SATED score and the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS), respectively. Results: Neither IPAQ nor MiBand found differences in PA between RR-MS patients and HC: RR-MS patients revealed a mean active time of 84.81 minutes/day, 6712 steps/day, and 4.28 km/day, while HC had 74.95 min/day, 5421 steps/day and 3.59 km/day. People who self-reported higher PA levels had higher measured active time (r .524; p=.001). RR-MS patients with higher scores in MFIS showed lower PA levels (p=.021) and SATED scores (p<.001). Most participants reported a decrease in PA levels due to the COVID19 pandemic, irrespectively of being RR-MS patients or HC. Conclusion: Self-reported physical activity correlates with objective measurements, while more fatigability and poor sleep health correlate with lower PA levels in RR-MS patients. Adequate evaluation is important to promote healthy physical activity habits. A bigger sample is needed to explore differences between groups regarding PA levels.