Effect of a Tailored Activity Pacing Intervention on Fatigue and Physical Activity Behaviours in Adults with MS, 2020

Effect of a Tailored Activity Pacing Intervention on Fatigue and Physical Activity Behaviours in Adults with Multiple Sclerosis

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/1/17/htm

Not very relevant to us but always interesting to see how similar studies are run in other diseases. I am not aware if PEM is a thing in MS, rare or not.

One interesting thing is the definition of pacing:

The last sentence is definitely more aspirational about what pacing should do, rather than what it is.

Results:

 

I spot Excel plots...

 

I remember those in my undergraduate days. We'd get bad marks for producing ugly plots like this, and especially those awful horizontal scale lines.

 

Yes, and sometimes it's more serious than just looking terrible. Excel is not really fit to do publication-quality data and statistical analysis.

 

So, prescribing an activity programme which incorporates a gradually increasing component causes people to increase their activity. That's a demonstration of compliance, not an outcome. There was no accompanying reduction in self-reported fatigue.

Even as a demonstration of compliance the results are not that persuasive. Participant numbers are very low (less than a dozen people per group), and the intervention and control groups were not matched on baseline activity levels at all. The control group was far less active to start with.

I really hope this doesn't give health professionals licence to go around telling MS patients what's "best for them".