Motivational Determinants of Objective Physical Activity in Women with Fibromyalgia Who Attended Rehabilitation Settings, 2021, Pastor-Mira et al

Abstract
Being physically active has positive effects on fibromyalgia functioning. However, promoting an active lifestyle in these patients continues to be a relevant clinical challenge. Our aim was to test a motivational model to explain light (LPA) and moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). A cross-sectional prospective study was conducted at a tertiary level of care. Participants completed sociodemographic, clinical, motivational (physical activity self-efficacy and goal preferences) and behavioral measures (activity avoidance). LPA and MVPA were measured with triaxial accelerometers, starting the same day of the aforementioned assessment. Out of 211 women, 183 completed this measure. Structural models were performed. Our results show that the best fit indices (CFI = 0.97, SRMR = 0.04) showed a model with direct influence of PA self-efficacy on MVPA (p < 0.01) and indirect influence on LPA (p < 0.001). LPA received the influence of PA self-efficacy mainly through activity avoidance (p < 0.01). Clinical variables did not have any effect on PA intensities. Thus, the motivational variables showed different paths to explain two PA intensities. Targeting PA self-efficacy in rehabilitation settings is needed to enhance both daily LPA and MVPA intensities.

Keywords: biopsychosocial; chronic pain; fibromyalgia; physical activity self-efficacy; goal preferences; activity avoidance; physical activity behavior; rehabilitation

Open access
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/10/23/5547/htm

 

Sometimes I just think I’d like to sit around day after day month after month year after year making up acronyms and scores.

Would I need to see any results for my work in terms of positive health outcomes for the subjects of my project?

No. I don’t think a lack of any tangible positive health results for patients would stop me. I am committed once I start a project.

More papers to my name, some esteem, relatively good pay, and my goal of achieving eminence someday. This would suffice.

Would I mind being an absolute **** to women?

No. I would welcome the opportunity. So long as there was some fault with them. Like a fibromyalgia diagnosis or something.

 

I would hypothesize that people with FM strive to be as physically active as they can tolerate and that activity level for which they strive is their exercise level prior to becoming ill with FM.

However much one is motivated to exercise with FM, the constant pain generation from normal, extremely low level of muscle work (lifting an arm overhead, for example) is a huge inhibitor of even sustained low level exercise (depending on the severity of FM in an individual).

The person with FM is in charge of the type and amount of exercise and when/how it is tolerated, or not.

The overview (the so-called objectivity of this research study) that the problem is one of motivation (to exercise) is not true, in my opinion.

The meme/trope that exercise per se improves FM, ipso facto, is not true either. Exercise has to be carefully self-monitored because increasing pain to just a wee bit over normal can be excruciating and take several weeks for getting it down to a baseline pain level.

I've never been able to 'pace up' my arm movements without inducing more pain than I can tolerate with the drugs I have available to me. In 23 years.

 

Another genuine parody of bad science. It's annoying that it's usually stuff like research on fruit flies that get named when it comes to pointless research. This may as well be an actual parody and it wouldn't make any difference. The one thing they can't possibly imagine to be relevant is the only thing that is. And it explicitly takes the outcome as the mechanism, a sort of auto-fueling perpetual motion machine. As if differentiating cause and effect were some trivial issue on no particular importance. Correlation is correlation, that's all that matters in this parody of science.

Hell, I subscribe to the FM sub-reddit. They regularly talk about exercise there, about wanting to do more, about being so happy about it when they can, how it's such a hard balance between payback and how it helps with pain. All these researchers need to do to understand their ridiculous parodies have nothing to do with real life is talk with patients, pay attention to what they say. And they can't even do that. Instead they praise and congratulate themselves over how good they are at listening to patients. Which is exactly how they fail at it. Another self-fueling perpetual motion machine.