{"doi":"10.1002/acr2.70148","title":"From Intention to Maintenance: A Two‐Year Examination of Clinical and Lifestyle Changes in Rheumatoid Arthritis","abstract":"OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the long-term impacts of a 16-week remotely supervised exercise and weight loss intervention for rheumatoid arthritis (Supervised Weight Loss and Exercise Training in Rheumatoid Arthritis [SWET-RA]). METHODS: In total, 21 older adults with RA completed the SWET-RA parent trial; 17 of 21 completed an exit survey. Approximately two years after study completion, 14 of 19 eligible participants (mean age 68.9 years) returned for the SWET-RA Reunion. Reunion participants completed surveys on sustained health behaviors and barriers to maintenance. Clinical assessments were evaluated relative to pre-intervention values and included anthropometrics, RA disease activity (Disease Activity Score in 28 joints [DAS-28]), blood biomarkers, and patient-reported outcomes. RESULTS: At study completion, most participants reported improvements in RA (n = 15) and intended to maintain health behaviors (n = 17). At the two-year Reunion, 50% engaged in aerobic activity regularly, whereas resistance training (21.4%) and dietary self-monitoring (14.3%) were less maintained. Barriers included lack of self-motivation and illness. In total, 10 of 14 participants experienced sustained improvements in RA disease activity without increasing medication. Among the 12 not increasing RA medication, DAS-28 C-reactive protein significantly improved (Δ = -1.0 ± SD 0.9, P = 0.002). Cardiometabolic risk, assessed via metabolic syndrome Z score, improved significantly for participants not increasing related medications (Δ = -1.6 ± SD 2.4, P = 0.05). CONCLUSION: Two years post-intervention, only half of the older adults with RA maintained aerobic exercise, with fewer sustaining resistance exercise and self-monitoring dietary intake. Nonetheless, compared to pre-intervention, long-term improvements in RA disease activity and cardiometabolic risk were present. These findings support the inclusion of lifestyle programs in comprehensive RA management.","journal":"ACR Open Rheumatology","year":2025,"id":585985,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9332,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":529954,"name":"Leanna M. Ross","orcid":"0000-0002-1407-1622","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1500144,"name":"Alyssa M. Sudnick","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":235343,"name":"Johanna L. Johnson","orcid":"0000-0001-9766-1814","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1054442,"name":"Kelsey B. Belski","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1500145,"name":"William C. Bennett","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":293941,"name":"Margery A. Connelly","orcid":"0000-0002-3917-592X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":530897,"name":"Ilene C. Siegler","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":231464,"name":"William E. Kraus","orcid":"0000-0003-1930-9684","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":596742,"name":"Connie W. Bales","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":719449,"name":"Kathryn N. Porter Starr","orcid":"0000-0002-0229-9742","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":235342,"name":"Kim M. Huffman","orcid":"0000-0003-4708-4734","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":684968,"name":"Brian J. Andonian","orcid":"0000-0003-1847-0660","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":725975,"name":"Katherine A. Collins","orcid":"0000-0001-9712-8980","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":29,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:59:24.273134Z","pmid":"41420289","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}