Promotion of a healthy lifestyle in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: safety, efficacy and feasibility of the study Living Well With Lupus

Abstract

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus spend most of their daily hours in sedentary behavior and tend to be physically inactive. Sedentary behavior and physical inactivity are independent risk factors for poor health outcomes and mortality in general and clinical populations. In addition, food patterns are a determining factor of an individual's health. Due to the lack of studies on the dietary pattern of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, it is believed that these patients present the same eating pattern as the general population, namely a high consumption of food with unbalanced nutritional composition and high caloric density and with an inadequate supply of micronutrients. In this context, new interventions focused on the practice of physical activity and food consumption management would be of great therapeutic relevance. However, to date, no studies have focused on these strategies in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Therefore, it is fundamental to evaluate lifestyle changes resulting from new intervention proposals. This project aims to assess the safety, efficacy, and viability of a clinical intervention, as well as the barriers and facilitators for engagement in lifestyle changes. It is a randomized, parallel group, controlled clinical study in which the following pre- and post-intervention data will be collected: 1) sedentary behavior and physical activity levels; 2) eating habits; 3) clinical parameters; 4) safety parameters and intervention feasibility. In addition, focus groups will be carried out at the end of the follow-up to qualitatively assess the impacts of the intervention. The findings of this project will have large clinical relevance, as they will serve as a basis for new prescriptions focused physical activity and eating habits, which are risk factors for patients with lupus. (AU)