Adherence
Supervised exercise programs significantly improve maximal walking time and distance in patients with intermittent claudication compared to usual care or placebo, with benefits sustained for up to two years.
If you have leg pain when walking due to narrowed arteries, do not stop moving. Engage in a supervised exercise program, walking until you feel pain, resting, and repeating. Doing this at least twice a week can significantly increase how far and how long you can walk, with benefits lasting for years. This is a low-risk, effective first-line treatment.
Compared with usual care or placebo, exercise significantly improved maximal walking time: mean difference (MD) 5.12 minutes (95% confidence interval (CI) 4.51 to 5.72;) with an overall improvement in walking ability of approximately 50% to 200%; ... Walking distances were also significantly improved: pain-free walking distance MD 82.19 metres (95% CI 71.73 to 92.65) and maximum walking distance MD 113.20 metres (95% CI 94.96 to 131.43). Improvements were seen for up to two years.
Why this rating
Based on 22 RCTs with 1200 participants, though some trials were small and heterogeneity existed.
Source
Exercise for intermittent claudication
Lea C. Watson et al. · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · 2008
DOI 10.1002/14651858.cd000990.pub2
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