Changes in Function After a 6-Month Walking Intervention in Patients With Intermittent Claudication Who Are Obese or Nonobese.
Odessa Addison, Alice S Ryan, Steven J Prior and 4 others
PMID 27341324WHAT IT FOUND
Obese and non-obese patients with PAD improved walking distance and endurance similarly after 6 months of supervised treadmill walking.
Obese patients who did not exercise declined significantly in function, while non-obese controls remained stable.
Key findings
01Both obese and non-obese exercise groups showed significant improvements in peak walking time and six-minute walk distance.
02Obese patients assigned to standard care experienced a substantial decline in six-minute walk distance, whereas non-obese standard care patients did not.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study is a secondary analysis with post-hoc grouping, resulting in very small sample sizes in the obese groups (8 participants each). Participants were volunteers, which may introduce selection bias toward more motivated or healthier individuals. The non-obese group had a mean BMI in the overweight range, so results may not apply to normal-weight individuals. Smoking status differed between groups, with all current smokers in the exercise arms, potentially confounding outcomes.
Declared interests
The study was conducted as part of the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Funding sources and conflicts of interest are not explicitly detailed in the provided text beyond the center affiliation.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that exercise prevents all functional decline in this population. Even after six months of supervised training, both exercise groups remained far below the walking norms for healthy older adults.