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Int J Sports Med 2021; 42(14): 1250-1259
DOI: 10.1055/a-1524-1935
Review

Effect of Exercise on Fatigue in Multiple Sclerosis Patients: A Network Meta-analysis

Yuting Chen‡
1   Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
3   The Key Laboratory of Major Autoimmune Diseases, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
,
Shanshan Xu‡
1   Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
3   The Key Laboratory of Major Autoimmune Diseases, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
,
Jiran Shen
2   Department of Internal Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
3   The Key Laboratory of Major Autoimmune Diseases, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
,
Hui Yang
1   Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
3   The Key Laboratory of Major Autoimmune Diseases, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
,
Wei Xu
1   Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
3   The Key Laboratory of Major Autoimmune Diseases, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
,
Ming Shao
1   Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
3   The Key Laboratory of Major Autoimmune Diseases, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
,
Faming Pan
1   Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
3   The Key Laboratory of Major Autoimmune Diseases, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China
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Abstract

Few studies have directly compared the effects of different exercise therapies on reducing fatigue in patients with multiple sclerosis. Thus, we conducted a Frequentist network meta-analysis to analyze and compare the effectiveness of different types of exercise on reducing multiple sclerosis-related fatigue. Relevant randomized controlled trials were searched in PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane Library databases from the date of their inception up to April 1, 2021. In total, 27 articles involving 1470 participants and 10 types of interventions met the inclusion criteria. The results indicated that aquatic exercise ranked as the most effective among these interventions, and aerobic exercise had small-to-moderate effect sizes. Most of the interventions were shown to be better than the control group, except for climbing. Climbing was the only intervention that ranked worse than the controls. All of these findings merit further investigation in future clinical trials.

Key words

multiple sclerosis - fatigue - exercise - training - ranking

Supplementary Material



Publication History

Received: 12 February 2021

Accepted: 11 May 2021

Article published online:
10 August 2021

© 2021. Thieme. All rights reserved.

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Rüdigerstraße 14, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

 

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