Clinical Study On The Effect Of Structured Home-based Walking Exercise Program On Walking Ability And Quality Of Life In Patients With Peripheral Arterial Disease

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of structured home-based walking training program on walking ability and quality of life of patients who diagnosed with peripheral arterial disease with symptoms of intermittent claudication.To determine whether structured home walking training programmes improves walking ability and quality of life in patients with peripheral arterial disease compared with those who are advised to "go home and walk",and to provide a basis for larger related studies in the future.METHODS: This study recruited patients with peripheral arterial disease who met the inclusion criteria and visited the hospital from December 2019 to June 2020.The patients were divided into the training group and the control group by prospective randomization.A total of 34 participants finally completed the 12-week follow-up.General information of patients,including age,gender,height,weight,body mass index,and cardiovascular risk factors,was collected in the study.The intervention in the training group was walking training regularly according to a structured home-based training program provided by the investigators,and the training lasted 12 weeks.However,However,patients in the control group were only advised to "go home and walking" in addition to general treatment measures and informing them of the importance of regular exercise for the improvement of walking function.The primary outcome measures of this study is the change in distance on the 6-minute walk test before and after the participants’ 12-week walking training.Secondary outcome measures were changes in self-reported the walking impairment questionnaire scores and quality of life scores after 12 weeks of follow-up.RESULTS: There were 17 participants in the training group and 17 in the control group who finally completed the follow-up in this study.The general conditions of patients in the two groups were comparable.After 12-week follow-up,The total6-minute walk distance in the training group was significantly increased compared with the control group.The total distance increased by 46.95 meters(SE = 2.98,p < 0.01)in the trained patients compared to the control group.In terms of patients’ self-reportedwalking impairment questionnaire scores,the distance,speed,and stair climbing scores in the training group were significantly improved compared with those before training.Distance scores(p < 0.01)and stair climbing scores(p < 0.01)improved more significantly compared to controls.After 12 weeks of walking training,the physical function,social function,and emotional function of the quality of life in the training group were significantly improved compared with the control group,and the differences were statistically significant(p < 0.01).CONCLUSION: The structured home-based walking training program can significantly improve the walking ability of patients with peripheral artery disease,and can improve the quality of life of patients with walking disorder,as well as physiological function,social function,and emotional function.It is a convenient and feasible physical movement therapy for patients with peripheral artery disease.