Original article
Does Resistance Training Improve the Functional Capacity and Well Being of Very Young Anorexic Patients? A Randomized Controlled Trial

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.09.001Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

We determined the effects of a 3-month low–moderate-intensity strength training program (2 sessions/week) on functional capacity, muscular strength, body composition, and quality of life (QOL) in 22 young (12–16 yrs) anorexic outpatients.

Methods

Patients were randomly assigned to a training or control group (n = 11 [10 females] each). Training sessions were of low intensity (loads for large muscle groups ranging between 20%–30% and 50%–60% of six repetitions maximum [6RM] at the end of the program). We measured functional capacity by the time up and go and the timed up and down stairs tests. Muscular strength was assessed by 6RM measures for seated bench and leg presses. We estimated percent body fat and muscle mass. We assessed patients' QOL with the Short Form-36 items.

Results

The intervention was well tolerated and did not have any deleterious effect on patients' health, and did not induce significant losses in their body mass. The only studied variable for which a significant interaction (group × time) effect was found (p = .009) was the 6RM seated lateral row test.

Conclusions

Low–moderate-intensity strength training does not seem to add major benefits to conventional psychotherapy and refeeding treatments in young anorexic patients.

Section snippets

Participants

We obtained written informed consent from all participants and their parents. The research protocol was reviewed and approved by the Children's Hospital Niño Jesús (Madrid, Spain). The present randomized control trial was performed between January and March 2007, following the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, last modified in 2000. We registered the study in www.clinicaltrials.gov (ID: NCT00829946).

From the database of the Children's Hospital Niño Jesús (Madrid, Spain), we contacted

Results

There were no protocol deviations from the study as planned. The final number of participants included as valid study participants, that is, with a 100% return for follow-up, was 11 in each group. Of the 11 participants in the intervention group, nine completed all the planned training sessions. We noted no major adverse effect or health problem in any study participant.

There were no differences in the mean levels of PA between both groups (Table 2). Likewise, the daily calorie intake was also

Discussion

The main finding of our study is that a low–moderate-intensity resistance training program performed in a hospital setting does not induce overall significant gains in the functional capacity (included aerobic capacity) of very young (≤16 years) anorexic outpatients nor in their ability to cope with physical activities of daily living. An actual improvement attributable to the training intervention (i.e., with a significant interaction effect) was observed only for the seated lateral row test.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from Universidad Europea de Madrid (2007/UEM23 and OTRI2008/UEM14), Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (PI061183), and from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Spain (EX-2007-1124), and Fundación Blas Méndez Ponce Ayuda al Niño Oncológico.

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