PACE

Self-management is very important in chronic diseases, and promoting physical activity is a key public health strategy towards addressing arthritis management. Although several exercise programs such as People with Arthritis Can Exercise (PACE) have been created to implement this strategy, none have sufficient scientific evidence to convince public health agencies to promote these programs.

PACE, a community-based group recreational exercise program, was developed by the Arthritis Foundation (AF) in 1987 and revised in 1999, in an effort to promote arthritis self-management through exercise. The primary goal of this study was to assess the program's effect on key arthritis-related health outcomes through an eight week randomized controlled trial conducted with 480 participants residing in eight urban or rural communities in North Carolina.

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What did we learn?

The PACE project was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the program in changing arthritis-related health outcomes that have been demonstrated to be significant in smaller quasi-experimental studies and to examine other arthritis-related health outcomes of potential importance. Outcomes immediately following the completion of PACE will be assessed as well as longer term outcomes three and six months after course completion.

To further explore benefits and barriers of the program, qualitative interviews will be conducted by phone with a selected sample of both those who completed the program and those who did not. Additional evaluation materials include a participant satisfaction form and an instructor feedback form. Controls will be offered the 8-week PACE program following the completion of data collection. Recommendations regarding the content and implementation of the PACE program will be formulated. Recommendations can then used by public health agencies to guide the implementation of self-management and exercise programs.

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