Effectiveness of Activity Management Among Women With Fibromyalgia Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Importance: Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) symptoms affect people’s activity behaviors, limiting their daily participation. Integrating activity pacing strategies into occupational therapy may improve chronic pain management. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of activity management (AM) in improving activity patterns, limitations related to FMS, occupational performance, occupational balance, and quality of life among women with FMS. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Setting: University hospital occupational therapy clinic. Participants: Thirty-one women with FMS (ages 18–65 yr; 15 intervention, 16 control). Intervention: The intervention group received individual, online AM sessions twice weekly for 4 wk, including activity pacing, mindfulness and ergonomics training, posture and relaxation exercises, and joint energy conservation techniques. Outcomes and Measures: Physical and sociodemographic characteristics were recorded for each participant, and the Patterns of Activity Measure–Pain, Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, Occupational Balance Questionnaire, and Nottingham Health Profile were administered twice, at baseline and at the end of the study, and the results were compared. Results: The intervention group showed decreased overdoing and avoidance and increased pacing (from 6.7% to 60%). Significant improvements were found in activity patterns (p = .012), symptoms (p = .004), occupational satisfaction (p = .001), and quality of life pain (p = .003). Conclusions and Relevance: AM is effective in reducing symptoms related to FMS among women and maladaptive activity patterns caused by chronic pain. AM can be considered an effective intervention method for FMS. Larger sample sizes and long-term studies are needed to confirm these findings. Plain-Language Summary: Fibromyalgia symptoms limit individuals’ participation in activities and reduce their quality of life. This study evaluated the effectiveness of activity management in improving activity patterns, limitations related to fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), occupational performance, occupational balance, and quality of life among women with FMS. The activity management intervention integrated traditional pain management approaches used by occupational therapists with activity pacing strategies, offering a person-centered, individualized, web-based intervention model. As a result of this study, improvements were observed in maladaptive activity patterns, symptoms, occupational satisfaction, and the pain dimension of quality of life of women with FMS. Our findings suggest that activity management can be considered an effective intervention for women with FMS.