The effectiveness of behaviour change interventions to increase physical activity participation in people with multiple sclerosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to illustrate whether people with multiple sclerosis engage in more physical activity following behaviour change interventions.

Data resources: MEDLINE, CINAHL, PubMed, Web of Sciences, Cochrane Library, SCOPUS, EMBASE and PEDro were searched from their inception till 30 April 2015.

Trial selection: Randomized and clinical controlled trials that used behaviour change interventions to increase physical activity in people with multiple sclerosis were selected, regardless of type or duration of multiple sclerosis or disability severity.

Data extraction: Data extraction was conducted by two independent reviewers and the Cochrane Collaboration's recommended method was used to assess the risk of bias of each included study.

Results: A total of 19 out of 573 studies were included. Focusing on trials without risk of bias, meta-analysis showed that behaviour change interventions can significantly increase physical activity participation (z = 2.20, p = 0.03, standardised main difference 0.65, 95% confidence interval 0.07 to 1.22, 3 trials, I(2) = 68%) (eight to 12 weeks' duration). Behaviour change interventions did not significantly impact on the physical components of quality of life or fatigue.

Conclusion: Behaviour change interventions provided for relatively short duration (eight to 12 weeks) may increase the amount of physical activity people with multiple sclerosis engage in, but appear to have no effect on the physical components of quality of life and fatigue. Further high quality investigations of the efficacy of behaviour change interventions to increase physical activity participation that focus on dose, long-term impact and method of delivery are warranted for people with multiple sclerosis.