Effect of aquatic exercise on fibromyalgia symptoms: a meta-analysis.

Abstract

Fibromyalgia (FM) symptoms cause a decline in the quality of life of people who suffer it, ranging from mild to severe; for that reason diverse therapies have been studied to lessen the health consequences of this syndrome. Aquatic exercises have shown positive results in many studies, setting the objective of performing a meta-analysis of the characteristics of this type of exercise and its association with symptoms caused by fibromyalgia. We included 16 studies (only pure experimental studies published between 1998 and 2008), from which we calculated a total of 196 effect sizes. An initial analysis compared the type of physical activity and then analyzed the moderating variables including studies that used only water activities. When analyzing the type of activity performed, the only one showing significant differences when compared to the control group was the one executed in an aquatic environment. From this subset, significant effect sizes were found at all ages studied, years of suffering the disease, exercise frequency, intensity, size of group, number of sessions, symptoms and all the components of physical fitness analyzed. In general, the activity is recommended to be performed in large groups, encouraging social ties, with a frequency of three sessions of 60 minutes per week, regardless of the intensity.