Comparison of functional outcomes post 10 week home exercise programme and a 10 week supervised exercise programme in intermittent claudication patients

Aim: To investigate the difference in functional outcomes of Intermittent Claudication (IC) subjects who undertook a supervised or unsupervised home exercise programme. Method: The study used a non-randomised test-retest. 21 subjects were recruited from IC patients referred by vascular consultants for exercise intervention. Identical cardiovascular circuit exercise regimens were given to both groups. Outcome measures assessed were the claudication onset (COD) and maximalwalking distance (MWD) during a six minutewalk test (6MWT) and visual analogue scores (VAS) for pain and for confidence to exercise. Result: There was no significant difference between groups in the outcomes for COD (p=0.713), VAS for pain (p=0.826) or VAS for confidence to exercise (p=0.971). However the MWD demonstrated a significant difference in outcome between the groups (p=0.044). The mean improvement for the SEP groupwas 16 metres where the mean change in valuewas -6.82 metres in the HEP group (p=0.044). Conclusion: Supervised exercise improved maximal walking distance compared to unsupervised home exercise. However, there was no statistical difference between the groups outcomes post intervention for COD, VAS for pain and VAS for confidence to exercise. Supervised exercise appears preferable to non-supervised exercise in improving the functional walking ability of IC sufferers.