PEAK Study (Physical Exercise and Activity in Kids)

December 17, 2013 updated by: Brian Feldman, The Hospital for Sick Children

The Effect of Vigorous Exercise on Motor Function and Functional Fitness in Juvenile Arthritis

The objectives of this study are to study the effect of formal exercise training on motor function and overall physical fitness in children with arthritis. A 12-week comprehensive exercise program will be used. Formal exercise training will be compared to Qi gong.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Detailed Description

Childhood arthritis is a common and often debilitating disease. Children with arthritis are less active than their peers, and consequently they often have poor physical fitness. This study follows up our pilot study, in which we showed that exercise training can be safely carried out in children who have arthritis.

We plan to randomly assign 80 children with arthritis to one of two groups. The experimental group undergoes a vigorous exercise training program consisting of twelve weekly supervised sessions as well as twice weekly at home sessions using an exercise video. The control group also has twelve supervised sessions and two home sessions. However, their exercises are non-strenuous, based on Qi gong. All children have comprehensive fitness testing before and after the training at the exercise lab at the Hospital for Sick Children.

If we show that fitness exercise leads to improved motor function and improved ability to carry out activities of daily living, then we will change the way in which we provide therapy for childhood arthritis. We hope that this study will lead to an improved quality of life for children with arthritis.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment

80

Phase

  • Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Ontario
      • Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 1X8
        • The Hospital for Sick Children

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

4 years to 12 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Age 8 - 16 years.
  2. Diagnosis of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis - based on the revised Durban criteria.
  3. Polyarticular or pauciarticular course.
  4. Stable Disease - on a stable dose of NSAID, and if applicable methotrexate or other second line agents - in the preceding month, and judged by the attending rheumatologist to be clinically stable and unlikely to need a change in medication over the course of the trial.
  5. Medications. There are no restrictions on medication use for this study; however, every effort is made to keep medication dosage stable over the course of study.

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Co-morbidity with cardiac, pulmonary or metabolic disease.
  2. Moderate or severe hip pain while walking (as judged by the patient and scored on a 4 point scale) or active systemic symptoms (fever, rash).
  3. Children who engage in more than 3 hours of structured extracurricular physical activity weekly may not show additional gains from fitness training and, therefore, are not studied. Children are not otherwise excluded from the study if currently attending a physiotherapy pool program with emphasis on joint range of motion and stretching.
  4. Children who are unable to cooperate with testing procedures.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
walking economy at completion of the exercise program
PEAK power, muscular endurance, and subjective function at completion of the exercise program

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Peak aerobic capacity (VO2 peak) measured post-exercise program
Anaerobic Power as measured by a Modified Wingate test at completion of the exercise program
Anthropometry as measured by Body Mass Index (BMI) and skinfold at completion of the exercise program
Improved physical function measured post treatment
Improved daily activity measured post treatment
Improved quality of life measure post treatment
Decreased arthritis activity measured post treatment
Improved range of motion measure post treatment

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Brian M. Feldman, MD, The Hospital for Sick Children

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

August 1, 2002

Study Completion

November 1, 2005

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 13, 2005

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 13, 2005

First Posted (Estimate)

September 21, 2005

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

December 18, 2013

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 17, 2013

Last Verified

December 1, 2013

More Information

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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