Background:The occurrence of Spondyloarthritis (SpA) often conditions patients’ quality of life and hinders their well-being. Physical activity (PA) is associated with various health-related benefits among adults with chronic inflammatory rheumatism but may be insufficiently performed.Objectives:This study aimed to assess PA in patients with SpA and explore its associated factors.Methods:This is a single-center cross-sectional study, involving patients with SpA, visiting our outpatient hospital over eight weeks. Patients responded to the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short form (IPAQ-S).Results:Sixty patients were included (39 M/21 F) with an average age of 45.8 years [25-78]. The mean duration of SpA was 13.2 years [1-25]. About 80% of patients were from an urban setting. Sixty-three percent of patients had a professional activity, while 13.3% were retired. Twenty-nine patients (48.3%) had axial and peripheral form, 18 patients (30%) had SpA with enteropathic arthritis, 8 (13.3%) with psoriatic arthritis, 3 patients (5%) had axial spondyloarthritis, and only 2 patients (3.3%) with SAPHO-Syndrom. About 23% of patients had hip arthritis and only 5% had uveitis. Fifty-eight patients were on TNF-inhibitor (21/58 Adalimumab, 15/58 Infliximab, 14/58 Etanercept, 8/58 Golimumab). The average BASDAI was 2.7/10. The average ASDASCRP was 2.1/10. The average BASFI was 3.3/10. IPAQ results were distributed as follows: 78.3% of patients were in the « low physical activity » category, 21.7% were in the « moderate physical activity » while none of the patients were in the « high physical activity ». Patients without employment had lower levels of physical activity (29.7%) but no association was observed between those two items (p=0.082). Disease activity objectified with BASDAI was related to low physical activity (p=0.045) whereas no association was observed with ASDASCRP (p=0.870) or BASFI (p=0.056). Otherwise, TNF-inhibitor treatment was not related to different levels of PA (p=0.09).Conclusion:Tunisian patients with SpA don’t perform enough physical activity. Except for high disease activity, the different levels of PA did not appear to be explained by other disease-related variables. Thereby, physical activity should be encouraged in SpA.References:[1]Fabre, S., Molto, A., Dadoun, S. et al. Physical activity in patients with axial spondyloarthritis: a cross-sectional study of 203 patients. Rheumatol Int 36, 1711–1718 (2016).Disclosure of Interests:None declared.
Correlation of enthesitis indices with disease activity and function in axial and peripheral spondyloarthritis: a cross-sectional study comparing MASES, SPARCC and LEI