Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Jan 3:13:5.
doi: 10.1186/1471-244X-13-5.

An impaired health related muscular fitness contributes to a reduced walking capacity in patients with schizophrenia: a cross-sectional study

Davy Vancampfort  1 , Michel Probst, Amber De Herdt, Rui Manuel Nunes Corredeira, Attilio Carraro, Dirk De Wachter, Marc De Hert
Affiliations

An impaired health related muscular fitness contributes to a reduced walking capacity in patients with schizophrenia: a cross-sectional study

Davy Vancampfort et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: Patients with schizophrenia report muscle weakness. The relation of this muscle weakness with performing daily life activities such as walking is however not yet studied. The aim of this study was to quantify walking capacity and health related muscular fitness in patients with schizophrenia compared with age-, gender and body mass index (BMI)-matched healthy controls. Secondly, we identified variables that could explain the variability in walking capacity and in health related muscular fitness in patients with schizophrenia.

Methods: A total of 100 patients with schizophrenia and 40 healthy volunteers were initially screened. Eighty patients with schizophrenia (36.8±10.0 years) and the 40 age-, gender- and body mass index (BMI)-matched healthy volunteers (37.1±10.3 years) were finally included. All participants performed a standing broad jump test (SBJ) and a six-minute walk test (6MWT) and filled out the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Patients additionally had a fasting metabolic laboratory screening and were assessed for psychiatric symptoms.

Results: Patients with schizophrenia did have lower 6MWT (17.9%, p<0.001) [effect size (ES)=-1.01] and SBJ (14.1%, p<0.001) (ES=-0.57) scores. Patients were also less physically active (1291.0±1201.8 metabolic equivalent-minutes/week versus 2463.1±1365.3, p<0.001) (ES=-0.91) than controls. Schizophrenia patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS) (35%) had a 23.9% lower (p<0.001) SBJ-score and 22.4% (p<0.001) lower 6MWT-score than those without MetS. In multiple regression analysis, 71.8% of the variance in 6MWT was explained by muscular fitness, BMI, presence of MetS and physical activity participation, while 53.9% of the variance in SBJ-score was explained by age, illness duration, BMI and physical activity participation.

Conclusions: The walking capacity and health-related muscular fitness are impaired in patients with schizophrenia and both should be a major focus in daily clinical practice and future research.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Strassnig M, Brar JS, Ganguli R. Low cardiorespiratory fitness and physical functional capacity in obese patients with schizophrenia. Schizophr Res. 2011;126:103–109. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2010.10.025. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Scheewe TW, Takken T, Kahn RS, Cahn W, Backx FJ. Effects of exercise therapy on cardiorespiratory fitness in schizophrenia patients. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012;44(10):1834–1842. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e318258e120. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Galletly C. Subjective muscle weakness and hypotonia during clozapine treatment. Ann Ann Clin Psychiatr. 1996;8(4):189–192. doi: 10.3109/10401239609147758. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Vancampfort D, Probst M, Sweers K, Maurissen K, Knapen J, De Hert M. Relationships between obesity, functional exercise capacity, physical activity participation and physical self perception in people with schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2011;123:423–430. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2010.01666.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Vancampfort D, Sweers K, Probst M, Maurissen K, Knapen J, Minguet P, De Hert M. The association of metabolic syndrome with physical activity performance in patients with schizophrenia. Diabetes Metab. 2011;37:318–323. doi: 10.1016/j.diabet.2010.12.007. - DOI - PubMed