Exercise programs for the management of fibromyalgia are well recognized as being effective. However, the incomplete descriptions of exercise programs make replication and implementation difficult. Also, existing reporting tools have not been validated in relation to pain relief as well as with each other.
This study aimed to evaluate the description of exercise programs in randomized control trials for the management of fibromyalgia using different assessment tools, and the correlations of each tool in relation to effectiveness of pain relief of fibromyalgia, and the correlations between each tool.
Through a consensus made by two different pairs of reviewers and an arbitrator, the mean total scores for the exercise programs were reported: 10.61/19 for Consensus on Exercise Reporting Template; 4.17/12 for Template for Intervention Description and Replication; 7.05/12 for the Consensus on Therapeutic Exercise Training; and 2.50/4 (aerobic) and 2.36/5 (flexibility and resistance) for the 2016 American College of Sports Medicine guidelines. This demonstrates generally low reporting scores (less than 60% out of the total number of items were reported). Overall, low correlations (Cohen's kappa value, ranging from -0.47 (poor) to 0.313 (fair)) were found between all tools and pain relief. Good to excellent correlations (0.680-0.908) among the reporting tools were shown.
Incomplete descriptions of exercise programs were consistently shown among the randomized clinical trials assessed in this study. The overall weak correlations demonstrated that the reporting tools have the limited ability to determine whether exercise programs were or were not effective for pain relief among individuals with fibromyalgia.