COMUNICACIONES

SYMPOSIUM EXERNET. Investigación en Ejercicio y Salud: Presente y Futuro en España.
Granada, 7-8 de Noviembre de 2014

Do overall physical fitness and subjective well-being help patients cope with fibromyalgia severity?: the al-Ándalus project

F. Estévez-López^a,b, C.M. Gray^b, V. Segura Jiménez^a, A. Soriano-Maldonado^a, I.C. Álvarez-Gallardo^a, M.J. Arrayás-Grajera^c, A. Carbonell-Baeza^d, V.A. Aparicio^a,e, M. Delgado-Fernández^a and M. Pulido-Martos^f

^aDepartment of Physical Education and Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
^bInstitute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
^cDepartment of Physical Education, Music, and Fine Arts, Faculty of Education, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain
^dDepartment of Physical Education, Faculty of Sciences Education, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain
^eDepartment of Physiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
^fDepartment of Psychology, School of Humanities and Sciences of Education, University of Jaén, Jaén, Spain
Correo electrónico: festevez@ugr.es (F. Estévez-López).

Key words: Chronic pain. Functional capacity. Health psychology. Physical function. Positive psychology. Resilience (psychological).

Aim. The purposes of the current study were: (i) to analyse the associations of overall physical fitness (OPF) and subjective well-being (SWB) with fibromyalgia symptom severity (FS); and (ii) to test the combined effect of OPF and SWB on FS among female patients.
Methods. This cross-sectional study included 424 fibromyalgia women. OPF and the components of SWB, positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA) and cognitive well-being (CWB), and FS were assessed by means of the Functional Senior Physical Fitness Test Battery, the Positive And Negative Affect Schedule, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, and the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, respectively.
Results. Significant associations of OPF, PA, NA, and CWB (β=-.23, β=-.18, β=.26, and β=-.18, respectively) with FS were observed. The combination of high OPF and high PA, low NA, or high CWB reduced FS by ~20% (Cohen's d > 1.0).
Conclusion. Our findings support that multidisciplinary interventions aimed to increase physical fitness holistically and to enhance subjective well-being may be particularly advisable for patients with low OPF and low SWB.