Benefit of Wearing an Activity Tracker in Sarcoidosis

Marjolein Drent; Marjon Elfferich; Ellen Breedveld; Jolanda De Vries; Bert Strookappe

doi:10.3390/jpm10030097

Benefit of Wearing an Activity Tracker in Sarcoidosis

J Pers Med. 2020 Aug 22;10(3):97. doi: 10.3390/jpm10030097.

Authors

Marjolein Drent^{1

2

3}, Marjon Elfferich^{1

4}, Ellen Breedveld^{1

4}, Jolanda De Vries^{1

5

6}, Bert Strookappe^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ ILD Care Foundation Research Team, 6711 NR Ede, The Netherlands.
² ILD Center of Excellence, Department of Pulmonology, St. Antonius Hospital, 3435 CM Nieuwegein, The Netherlands.
³ Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, FHML, University Maastricht, 6211 LK Maastricht, The Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Physical Therapy, Hospital Gelderse Vallei, 6716 RP Ede, The Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Medical Psychology, Elisabeth-TweeSteden Hospital Tilburg, 5042 AD Tilburg, The Netherlands.
⁶ Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology, Tilburg University, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Sarcoidosis causes many disabling symptoms, including fatigue and exercise limitations, which have been shown to improve by physical activity programs. The aim of this study was to estimate the effect of continuous activity monitoring using an electronic activity tracker (AT) on exercise performance and fatigue of sarcoidosis patients, compared to controls (cohort study), and the effect of additional personal coaching (randomized trial) over a period of 3 months. Fifty-four sarcoidosis patients received an AT (Group Ia: 27 with coaching and Group Ib: 27 without). A historical group of sarcoidosis patients (Group II; n = 41) who did not follow a physical activity program served as controls. Exercise performance of patients wearing an AT (Group I) improved compared with controls (Group II), including the 6MWD, % predicted (∆4.4 ± 9.1 versus ∆0.7 ± 5.0, respectively), and fatigue levels decreased (∆-3.9 ± 5.7 versus ∆-1.8 ± 5.3). Patients with coaching (Group Ia) showed greater improvement of exercise capacity over time than patients without coaching (Group Ib) as shown by the Steep Ramp Test results (watts: ∆20.2 ± 33.8 versus ∆5.7 ± 26.4; and SRT, VO₂max, % predicted: ∆1.6 ± 2.6 versus ∆0.7 ± 2.3). Sarcoidosis patients wearing an AT achieved improvement of exercise performance and reduction of fatigue. We therefore recommend encouraging sarcoidosis patients to wear an AT to stimulate physical activity and reduce fatigue. The additional benefit of coaching needs to be explored in future studies.

Keywords: activity tracker; exercise capacity; fatigue; physical activity; physical training; sarcoidosis.