Aerobic exercise in adult neuromuscular rehabilitation: A survey of healthcare professionals

Objective: To evaluate the current application of aerobic exercise in adult neuromuscular rehabilitation. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Participants: Dutch rehabilitation specialists and physical therapists in specialized centres for slowly progressive neuromuscular diseases and in primary care. Methods: Participants received a self-designed, web-based, questionnaire, including 27 close-ended questions covering 4 categories: respondent profile, application of aerobic exercise, barriers to prescribing aerobic exercise, and need for support to improve the application of aerobic exercise. Results: All respondents (n=52) prescribed aerobic exercise and in a wide variety of neuromuscular diseases, mostly applying sessions of more than 20 min, 2 days per week, over a period of 9-16 weeks, using different exercise modes and methods to target intensity. The majority (81%) agreed that aerobic exercise should be incorporated into neuromuscular rehabilitation. However, all respondents perceived barriers to the application of aerobic exercise in one or more domains, and 77% of the respondents indicated needing support to improve application of this type of training, mostly with respect to screening procedures (54%) and dosing of exercise programmes (48%). Conclusion: Aerobic exercise is widely applied, yet our results raise awareness of the necessity of more evidence based knowledge, in order to develop and implement guidelines in adult neuromuscular rehabilitation.