Näytönastekatsaukset

Aerobic exercise in treatment of fibromyalgia

Näytönastekatsaukset

3.3.2026

Aleksi Raudasoja, Olavi Airaksinen and Aleksi Varinen

Level of evidence: C

Aerobic exercise may reduce fibromyalgia-related symptoms including pain.

A Cochrane review measured the impact of aerobic exercise, aerobic exercise protocols and supervised aerobic exercise. The pooled assessment suggested about 18% decrease in pain and 15% increase in quality of life (i.e. reduction in total fibromyalgia symptoms).

The Cochrane review also reported a possible 8% improvement in fatigue (-0.4% to 16%) «Bidonde J, Busch AJ, Schachter CL, et al. Aerobic exercise training for adults with fibromyalgia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2017;6(6):CD012700 »1.

The level of evidence was downgraded due to lack of blinding of study participants, outcome assessment and imprecise estimates.

Adverse events were rare. One study reported one metatarsal stress fracture.

Table 1. Description of the included studies
Reference	Study type	Population	Intervention and comparison	Outcomes	Risk of bias
RCT=randomized controlled trial; SR=systematic review; MA=meta-analysis
«Bidonde J, Busch AJ, Schachter CL, et al. Aerobic exercise training for adults with fibromyalgia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2017;6(6):CD012700 »1	SR and MA	Adults with Fibromyalgia	Aerobic exercise vs usual care or wait list or other interventions	Health-related quality of life, Pain intensity, Fatigue, physical function, adverse events	high

Table 2. Additional comments for included studies
Reference	Comments
«Bidonde J, Busch AJ, Schachter CL, et al. Aerobic exercise training for adults with fibromyalgia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2017;6(6):CD012700 »1	Participants were not blinded in most studies. Only 1 study had low risk of bias regarding blinded outcome assessment regarding self-reported outcomes (HRQL, Pain, Fatigue, physical function). Most trials tested supervised exercise programs vs control.

Results

Table 3. Outcome 1. Health-related quality of life [FIQ, scale 0-100]
Reference	Number of studies and number of patients (I/C)	Follow-up time	Mean (SD) I	Mean (SD) C	Mean difference (95% CI)
Level of evidence: low The quality of evidence is downgraded due to study limitations and imprecision. I= intervention; C=comparison; CI=confidence interval
«Bidonde J, Busch AJ, Schachter CL, et al. Aerobic exercise training for adults with fibromyalgia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2017;6(6):CD012700 »1	5 studies (228/144)	12-24 weeks	not reported	Not reported, Range 54-63.7	-7.89 (-13.23 to -2.55) relative change: 15% (5% to 24%) better

Table 4. Outcome 2. Pain intensity [scale 0-100]
Reference	Number of studies and number of patients (I/C)	Follow-up time	Mean (SD) I	Mean (SD) C	Mean difference (95% CI)
«Bidonde J, Busch AJ, Schachter CL, et al. Aerobic exercise training for adults with fibromyalgia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2017;6(6):CD012700 »1	6 studies (210/141)	6-24 weeks	not reported	not reported, range 56- 80.5	-11.06 (-18.34 to -3.77) relative change: 18% (7% to 30%) better
Level of evidence: low The quality of evidence is downgraded due to study limitations and imprecision. I= intervention; C=comparison; CI=confidence interval

Table 5. Outcome 3. Physical function [scale 0-100]
Reference	Number of studies and number of patients (I/C)	Follow-up time	Mean (SD) I	Mean (SD) C	Mean difference (95% CI)
«Bidonde J, Busch AJ, Schachter CL, et al. Aerobic exercise training for adults with fibromyalgia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2017;6(6):CD012700 »1	3 studies (159/87)	8-24 weeks	not reported	not reported, range 29-49	-10.16 (-15.39 to -4.94)
Level of evidence: low The quality of evidence is downgraded due to study limitations and imprecision. I= intervention; C=comparison; CI=confidence interval

References

Bidonde J, Busch AJ, Schachter CL, et al. Aerobic exercise training for adults with fibromyalgia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2017;6(6):CD012700 «PMID: 28636204»PubMed