Background: Progressive resistance training (PRT) is not routinely advocated or prescribed in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and, to date, no study has investigated the safety and efficacy of isolated PRT in this cohort. PRT has been shown to elicit improvements in skeletal muscle size and quality contributing to improvements in insulin sensitivity and glucoregulation in type two diabetes mellitus. These adaptations would benefit women with PCOS given that insulin resistance plays a large role in its aetiology. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of a 12-week PRT intervention in women with PCOS. Methods: Women aged 18-42 years with a diagnosis of PCOS (Rotterdam criteria) were randomised into either a PRT group or a usual care (control) group. Participants in the PRT group were prescribed two supervised training sessions per week plus two non-supervised (home-based) callisthenic exercise sessions per week for 12 weeks, while participants in the control group received no exercise intervention. Feasibility outcomes included recruitment sources and recruitment rate, acceptability of randomisation procedures, compliance to data collection tools, adherence to PRT intervention adverse events, experience of trial questionnaire, and a 6-8 week follow-up questionnaire (PRT group only). Clinical measures of efficacy included menstrual cyclicity, physiological outcomes (haematological, hemodynamic, anthropometric), functional outcomes (upper and lower body strength) and psychological outcomes (disease-specific quality of life, HRQoL, depression, anxiety, stress, and exercise self-efficacy). Results: Seventy-eight women expressed interest in the study. Thirteen women (27.0 + 5yrs; 102.9 +35.01kg; 163.8+9.29cm) completed baseline test and were randomised into the PRT group (n=7) or control group (n=6). Adherence to exercise training for participants that completed the 12 week training was 95+6 % for supervised training, 51+28 % for home-based training, and 73+5.8% overall. No adverse events to PRT were reported. Feasibility results indicate that the use of social media (Facebook) and free advertising (Gumtree) were the most successful methods in recruiting participants into the study. The PRT group significantly reduced HbA1c (p=0.031), waist circumference (p=0.027), trended toward decrease for waist to hip ratio (p=0.093), while significant increases were noted for body weight (p=0.012), BMI (p=0.037), lean mass (p=0.012), and fat free mass (p=0.005). The PRT group also experienced a trend toward increased upper body strength (p=0.065), and a significant increase in lower body strength (p=0.025) versus the control group. Further group x time interactions and trends favouring the PRT group were noted for PCOSQ domains emotions (p=0.003), weight (p=0.045), infertility (p=0.025), SF-36 domains mental component scale (p=0.000), social functioning (p=0.002), role emotional (p=0.009), mental health (p=0.009), physical component scale (p=0.132), general health (p=0.141), DASS-21 including depression (p=0.01),anxiety (p=0.025), stress (p=0.170), perceived stress (p=0.021) and exercise self-efficacy (p=0.035). Conclusion: In summary, the present study demonstrated that it is feasible to prescribe a PRT intervention within an RCT in women with PCOS. Participants in the PRT group also experienced significant improvements in various markers of physiological, functional and psychological health status. These benefits included improvements in HbA1c, muscle mass, waist circumference, lower-body strength, disease-specific quality of life (i.e. emotions, body weight, and infertility), HRQoL, depression, anxiety, perceived stress, and exercise self-efficacy. No adverse events to PRT were reported. Overall, the findings indicate that a large scale clinical trial of PRT in this patient population is warranted.
| Date of Award | 2015 |
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| Original language | English |
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