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Physical Exercise in Chronic Diseases: Assessment, Implementation and Effectiveness
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Physical Exercise in Chronic Diseases: Assessment, Implementation and Effectiveness

A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). This special issue belongs to the section "Chronic Care".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 2346

Editor

Dr. Rubén Cuesta-Barriuso

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Surgery and Medical-Surgical Specialties, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oviedo, El Cristo Campus, 33006 Oviedo, Spain
2. InHeFis Research Group, Instituto Asturiano de Investigación Sanitaria (ISPA), 33006 Oviedo, Spain
Interests: physical therapy; physiotherapy; manual therapy; musculoskeletal disorders; sports injuries; joint pain; hemophilia; rehabilitation; quality of life; joint damage
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The treatment of chronic diseases is based on an accurate diagnosis, the administration of specific pharmacological treatments, and a healthy lifestyle. Sedentary lifestyles are one of the main red flags when implementing active programmes where the patient must be at the centre of the treatment and the key to success.

The literature shows that therapeutic exercise programmes show a high degree of efficacy in functional improvement and recovery in patients with acute diseases and post-surgical processes. However, in chronic diseases, especially the more minor ones, the scientific evidence for therapeutic exercise is not as remarkable. Knowing the prevalence and incidence of physical activity in these patients, the predictive models of activity, and the preferences of these patients when developing specific programmes are areas of interest that have yet to be developed in chronic diseases. Similarly, identifying the efficacy of therapeutic exercise programmes in patients with chronic diseases will allow us to implement them clinically and thus improve the treatment of these patients.

We are pleased to invite you to provide clinicians and researchers with evidence-based recommendations on the safety and efficacy of therapeutic exercise protocols in the management of patients with chronic diseases. Also of interest is the identification of outcome measures and predictive models of therapeutic exercise and physical activity that allow us to implement them in rehabilitative approaches for these patients. Thus, review articles describing the current state of these therapeutic techniques and clinical studies assessing the efficacy of exercise are welcome, providing evidence for their clinical implementation in patients with chronic diseases.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:

  • Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of the efficacy of therapeutic exercise in the treatment of chronic diseases.
  • Studies on the assessment and prognosis of therapeutic exercise in patients with chronic diseases.
  • Experimental studies measuring the efficacy of therapeutic exercise in patients with chronic diseases.
  • Comparative and psychometric studies of different tools for the assessment of activity and therapeutic exercise in chronic diseases.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Rubén Cuesta-Barriuso
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • physical exercise
  • chronic diseases
  • diagnostic
  • prevention
  • rehabilitation
  • effectiveness

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 385 KB  
Article
The Psychometric Properties of the Moberg Pick-Up Test (MPUT) to Assess Fine Motor Skills in Adults with Haemophilia
by Arnika Lorenz, Fabian Tomschi, Alexander Schmidt, Holger Stephan, Joschua Wiese and Thomas Hilberg
Healthcare 2026, 14(3), 368; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare14030368 - 31 Jan 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 677
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Haemophilia-related bleedings primarily affect the musculoskeletal system, and functional tests are used in clinical management. Yet, fine motor skills of the upper extremities have not been evaluated in adult persons with haemophilia (PwH). The Moberg Pick-Up Test (MPUT) assesses fine motor [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Haemophilia-related bleedings primarily affect the musculoskeletal system, and functional tests are used in clinical management. Yet, fine motor skills of the upper extremities have not been evaluated in adult persons with haemophilia (PwH). The Moberg Pick-Up Test (MPUT) assesses fine motor skills but has only been psychometrically evaluated in other cohorts. This study aims to examine its psychometric properties in PwH. Methods: A total of 40 moderate or severe PwH A or B were included. The MPUT, consisting of three trials, was conducted twice by rater A and once by rater B. The best performance per hand of each MPUT was used. Subjective hand function (Duruöz Hand Index (DHI) and numeric rating scale (NRS)), elbow joint status (Haemophilia Joint Health Score (HJHS)), pain (NRS), and wrist range of motion (ROM) were utilised for convergent validity evaluation. Inter-rater and test–retest reliability were determined through intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for raw and log10-transformed data. Results: Inter-rater and test–retest reliability demonstrated moderate-to-excellent ICCs for both data types (ICC range: 0.624–0.918). The DHI correlated moderately with the average MPUT score of both hands (r = 0.410; p = 0.016). Left-hand MPUT scores did not correlate with left elbow HJHS scores, whereas right-hand MPUT scores correlated with right elbow HJHS scores (r = 0.396, p = 0.018). Subjective left-hand function (NRS) correlated with the results of the MPUT (r = 0.433; p = 0.009). Conclusions: The MPUT is a reliable and partially valid tool and can be useful to assess fine motor skills in PwH. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physical Exercise in Chronic Diseases: Assessment, Implementation and Effectiveness)
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15 pages, 259 KB  
Article
Clinical and Psychosocial Predictors of Physical Activity in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Multicentre Cross-Sectional Study
by Alba Castañón-Fernández, Rubén Cuesta-Barriuso and José María Torres-Quiles
Healthcare 2025, 13(21), 2768; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13212768 - 31 Oct 2025
Viewed by 941
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterised by musculoskeletal manifestations such as myopathies, arthritis, and arthralgia. Physical activity may improve patients’ quality of life and overall wellbeing. This study aimed to evaluate physical activity levels in patients with [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterised by musculoskeletal manifestations such as myopathies, arthritis, and arthralgia. Physical activity may improve patients’ quality of life and overall wellbeing. This study aimed to evaluate physical activity levels in patients with SLE and identify how clinical, psychosocial, and sociodemographic factors influence these levels. Methods: A multicentre cross-sectional study was conducted including 64 patients with SLE. Clinical variables were obtained from medical records, and patient-reported outcomes were collected at the time of the survey. Physical activity was assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-SF). Independent variables included fatigue (FAS), quality of life (SF-36), sleep (PSQI), depression (BDI-II), anxiety (HARS), age, disease factors (activity, duration, damage), sex, smoking, and comorbidities. Results: Significant associations were found between physical activity levels and smoking status (χ2 = 11.88; p = 0.003), sleep quality (χ2 = 6.81; p = 0.03), and anxiety (χ2 = 18.39; p = 0.001). In multivariable analyses, poor sleep (PSQI > 5) (OR = 14.40; 95% CI: 2.50–82.99), higher anxiety (HARS; per point OR = 1.12; 95% CI: 1.05–1.20), and higher SF-36 Physical Component Summary (PCS) scores (per point OR = 1.29; 95% CI: 1.15–1.45) were associated with being in a higher physical activity category. Given the counterintuitive direction for sleep and the limited model fit, these results should be interpreted cautiously. Conclusions: In patients with SLE, physical activity was associated with sleep disturbances, anxiety, and perceived physical health. These findings underscore the need to integrate psychosocial and behavioural factors into multidisciplinary strategies promoting physical activity in lupus care and provide a rationale for future longitudinal and interventional studies to validate and extend these associations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physical Exercise in Chronic Diseases: Assessment, Implementation and Effectiveness)
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