Physical activity may reduce future aches and pains

SOURCE: BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, December 1, 2008.

Published December 09, 2008

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A large study conducted in Norway shows that physical exercise is associated with lower rates of chronic musculoskeletal complaints more than a decade later.

Dr. Helene Sulutvedt Holth of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim and colleagues examined the relationship between physical inactivity and the development of chronic musculoskeletal complaints. The findings appear in the online journal BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders.

The team evaluated the results of two public health studies in which 39,520 participants responded to questions about physical activity patterns between 1984 and 1986 and to questions about chronic musculoskeletal complaints 11 years later between 1995 and 1997.

Chronic musculoskeletal complaints were defined as musculoskeletal complaints lasting 3 months or longer the year before the questionnaire. Chronic widespread musculoskeletal complaints were defined as pain in the trunk of the body, above the waist or below the waist, for 15 days or longer in the previous month.

At the follow-up questionnaire, Holth and associates found that 51 percent of respondents reported chronic musculoskeletal complaints and 5.9 percent reported chronic widespread complaints.

Participants who were exercising when the study began were 9 percent less likely to have chronic musculoskeletal complaints compared with inactive individuals. Those who exercised three or more times per week were 28 percent less likely to have chronic widespread musculoskeletal complaints.

"In the present study, a participant's physical activity level is based on leisure time exercise only," Holth and colleagues caution, noting that "the impact of occupational physical workload might also have contributed to the results."

These results may aid the understanding of the processes leading to musculoskeletal complaints, the researchers point out. "Future studies should try to clarify whether chronic musculoskeletal complaints are a cause or a consequence of inactivity."

SOURCE: BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, December 1, 2008.