Qigong vs. Aerobic Exercise in the Treatment of Childhood Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain

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

Feasibility and Impact of Qigong as Compared to Aerobic Exercise in the Treatment of Childhood Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

This study is comparing two different exercise programs, Qi Gong (gentle stretching, and breathing) with an aerobics program (boxing and dancing) to see if children with chronic pain or fibromyalgia are able to take part in the program. We would also like to know if it is easy to take part in an exercise program.

We hypothesize that children with chronic musculoskeletal pain and FM, who engage in Qigong fitness training, will be more compliant, and have an equivalent or possibly superior improvement on measures of motor function (peak power, endurance, and metabolic efficiency) compared to children given an aerobic fitness exercise program.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Background: Childhood fibromyalgia (FM) and chronic musculoskeletal pain are common and sometimes devastating pediatric disorders resulting in widespread pain, fatigue, tenderness and significant disability. Exercises, including vigorous aerobics, and complementary and alternative health strategies - like Qigong - have shown to be safe and effective in the treatment of adult FM and chronic pain. Qigong may be more tolerable than more vigorous exercise. No data is available for this treatment in children.

Research Question: To test the feasibility of studying Qigong exercise versus aerobic fitness exercise to reduce symptoms and disability in children with FM or chronic pain.

Methods: Randomized single-blind pilot study of 30 childhood FM/chronic pain patients allocated to either 12 weeks of supervised Qigong therapy or 12 weeks of supervised graded aerobic exercise training (cardio-karate).

Expected Results: Physical exercise training - whether Qigong or aerobic exercise - represents a potentially feasible, safe and effective alternative therapy and may increase the ability for these children to resume their normal activities of daily life. Exercise training may therefore emerge as a pivotal mode of therapy for all children with FM/chronic pain. Results from our study will allow us to plan a definitive study.

Specific Objectives: 1. To study the feasibility of enrolling, randomizing and studying participants with FM/chronic pain using validated measures of symptoms, physical and psychosocial function, quality of life and exercise testing. 2. Acquire pilot data that will allow for the estimation of an effect size for the comparison of 2 forms of exercise - standard aerobic fitness exercise, and a specially designed Qigong program. This effect size estimate will be used in designing a subsequent definitive randomized controlled trial.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment

30

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

  • Canada
    • Ontario
      • Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 1X8
        • Hospital for Sick Children
      • Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M2J 4S9
        • Bloorview MacMillan Children's Centre

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

8 years to 18 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age 8-18 years
  • Diagnosis of childhood fibromyalgia or chronic musculoskeletal pain (ACR criteria)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Co-morbidity with cardiac, pulmonary or metabolic disease.
  • Children who engage in more than 3 hours of structured extracurricular physical activity programs weekly, unless a physiotherapy pool program with emphasis on joint range of motion and stretching.
  • 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
Accrual rates
Compliance with therapy
Acceptability of exercise program
Degree of conditioning of subjects at baseline
Proportion of completed exercise tests and questionnaires
Dropout rates
Estimates of the effect sizes for exercise tests and questionnaire data

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

The Hospital for Sick Children

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Brian Feldman, MSc MD FRCPC, 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.

General Publications

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, 2005

Primary Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2007

Study Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2007

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 5, 2006

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 6, 2006

First Posted (Estimate)

April 7, 2006

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

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1000007434

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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