Effect of short-term physical training on patients with rheumatoid arthritis. a six-month follow-up study

Twenty-three patients with rheumatoid arthritis were retested about 6 months after 5 weeks' physical conditioning and 7 patients from a former control group were also retested. Former training group patients, who had continued to train about 4 times or more per week, had maintained the improved physical status obtained during the initial conditioning, while those patients who had trained less than that or discontinued training, had lost some or most of their improvement. The physical status in the former control group was virtually remained unchanged. Joint status in the former training group was no different at re-test than at post-training or pre-training examinations. A questionnaire, given to the training group patients. Four patients from this group returned to work had positively affected the daily physical activity of these patients. Four patients from this group returned to work after the hospital training program.