Upper Limb Rehabilitation in Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy: A Patients' Perspective.



Faux-Nightingale, Alice ORCID: 0000-0002-4865-181X, Kulshrestha, Richa, Emery, Nicholas, Pandyan, Anand, Willis, Tracey and Philp, Fraser ORCID: 0000-0002-8552-7869
(2021) Upper Limb Rehabilitation in Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy: A Patients' Perspective. Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translation, 3 (4). 100157-.

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Abstract

<h4>Objective</h4>To identify (1) what exercise modalities people living with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) are undertaking in the community as a part of their ongoing rehabilitation and (2) what future research projects would gain the support of people with FSHD.<h4>Design</h4>An online questionnaire composed of open and closed questions. Conventional content analysis was used for open questions, and quantitative analysis was used for closed questions.<h4>Setting</h4>Online questionnaire distributed to a United Kingdom FSHD registry.<h4>Participants</h4>A total of 232 patients on the United Kingdom FSHD registry (N=232).<h4>Interventions</h4>None.<h4>Main outcome measures</h4>None.<h4>Results</h4>A response rate of 43.6% was achieved with 232 of 532 patients completing the survey. Despite 85.8% (n=199) of patients experiencing shoulder instability that affects daily living, only 44.4% (n=103) engaged with exercises targeting the upper body. The themes from the data were understanding of disease mechanism shaping exercise choice, lack of understanding about the condition and the benefit of exercise, support from professionals, barriers to exercise, and thoughts about future research. Participants (92.2%, n=214) agreed additional research into upper limb exercises is needed and felt a 3-month arm cycling intervention with monthly clinical visits and magnetic resonance imaging would be appropriate.<h4>Conclusions</h4>Exercise selection was variable among patients with FSHD, and lack of information, pain, fatigue, availability and access to facilities, cost, and time were identified as barriers to exercise. This may account for the limited engagement with upper limb rehabilitation despite the high percentage of shoulder instability in patients with FSHD. Further research is needed to develop evidence-based exercise interventions, and guidance for upper limb exercise prescription in FSHD, and patients are supportive of this.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Exercise, FSHD, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, Joint instability, Muscular dystrophies, MRI, magnetic resonance imaging, Patient participation, Questionnaires, Rehabilitation, Surveys, UK, United Kingdom., Upper extremity
Divisions: Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Population Health
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Population Health > School of Health Sciences
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 03 Nov 2021 09:49
Last Modified: 18 Jan 2023 21:25
DOI: 10.1016/j.arrct.2021.100157
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3142497