PHYSICAL ACTIVITY FOR CHRONIC PANCREATITIS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

B. Monaghan¹, A. Monaghan¹, D. Mockler², U.A. Qurat³, S. Duggan⁴, K.C. Conlon⁴, J. Gormley¹

¹University of Dublin, Trinity College, Discipline of Physiotherapy, School of Medicine, Dublin, Ireland, ²University of Dublin, Trinity College, John Stearne Library, Trinity Centre for Health Sciences, Dublin, Ireland, ³University of Dublin, Trinity College, Trinity Centre for Health Sciences, Dublin, Ireland, ⁴University of Dublin, Trinity College, Professional Surgical Unit, Department of Surgery, Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

Background: Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a progressive inflammatory disorder of the pancreas. Sarcopenia is a degenerative loss of skeletal muscle mass, quality, and strength and is commonly associated with chronic pancreatitis. Regular physical activity and adequate functional fitness have been found to ameliorate the risk and effects of sarcopenia in other chronic diseases, however to date physical activity has not been objectively determined in the Chronic pancreatitis population.

Purpose: The objective of this systematic review was to collate all the published evidence which has examined any type of physical activity as an intervention in the chronic pancreatitis patient population.

Methods: This systematic review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. The search strategy was designed by the medical librarian (DM) for Embase and then modified for the other search platforms. Two of the researchers (BM) and (AM) then performed the literature search using the databases Embase, Medline, CINAHL, and Web of Science.

Results: An electronic identified a total of 571 references imported to Covidence as 420 when the duplicates (151) were removed. 420 titles were screened and 390 were removed as not relevant from their titles. 30 full text papers were selected and from these, only one full text paper was deemed suitable for inclusion. This study showed a yoga based 12 week exercise intervention improved quality of life and stress indicators for patients with chronic pancreatitis.

Conclusions: There is currently insufficient evidence to advise physical activity in the chronic pancreatitis population. However, given the evidence to support physical activity in many other chronic diseases this review highlights the need for urgent investigation of physical activity as an intervention on this specific patient population.

Implications: There is currently insufficient evidence to advise the chronic pancreatitis population but given the evidence to support physical activity in many other chronic diseases this review highlights an urgent need for further investigation in this patient population to ensure optimal conservative management of this patient group. Physiotherapists are well positioned to lead future research in this area.

Funding acknowledgements: There was no funding for this review.

Keywords:
Physical Activity
Chronic pancreatitis
Conservative management

Topics:
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Education: clinical
Community based rehabilitation

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Trinity College Dublin

Committee: Joint St James’s Hospital/Tallaght University Hospital Research Ethics Committee 2021

Ethics number: 2020-03