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Current Rheumatology Research

ISSN: 2693-7204

Original Research Open Access

The effect of distance to exercise facilities and sociodemographic factors on pain and function among rheumatology patients

Chi Chi Lau1,*, Levi Bonnell2, Bradley J. Tompkins3, Dawid Czarny4, Amanda G. Kennedy5
  • 1Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Department of Medicine, Robert Larner, MD College of Medicine at the University of Vermont and University of Vermont Medical Center, Burlington, VT, USA
  • 2STS Research and Analytic Center, The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, Chicago, IL, USA
  • 3Quality Program, Department of Medicine, Robert Larner, MD College of Medicine at the University of Vermont and University of Vermont Medical Center, Burlington, VT, USA
  • 4Department of Internal Medicine, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, USA
  • 5Quality Program, Department of Medicine, Robert Larner, MD College of Medicine at the University of Vermont and University of Vermont Medical Center, Burlington, VT, USA
+ Affiliations - Affiliations

Corresponding Author

Chi Chi Lau, chichi.lau@uvmhealth.org

Received Date: January 27, 2026

Accepted Date: February 16, 2026

Citation:

Lau CC, Bonnell L, Tompkins BJ, Czarny D, Kennedy AG. The effect of distance to exercise facilities and sociodemographic factors on pain and function among rheumatology patients. Curr Rheumatol Res. 2026;6(1):1-7.


Copyright: © 2026 Lau CC, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Clinical features are known to influence pain in patients, but demographic characteristics have been less studied. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate the relationship of distance to exercise facilities and other demographic factors to the pain and function score, RAPID3 (Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data) in a large rheumatology practice.

The study data were extracted from an academic medical center electronic health record for established adult rheumatology outpatients. Multivariate linear regression quantified the relationship between the RAPID3 and age, sex, race, insurance status, rheumatologic condition (inflammatory or not), and geocoded distance from residential address to the closest indoor exercise facility. The mean RAPID3 differed significantly between subgroups for categorical variables (P<0.001) in the 4,937 patients studied. In the adjusted multivariate regression model, an increase in 5 kilometers between patient residence and the nearest exercise facility, was associated with a rise in the RAPID3 by 0.13 (P=0.04). RAPID3 also rose if the patient was a current smoker (β=3.4, P<0.001). There was a significant decrease in RAPID3 for men (β=-1.1, P<0.001), those of white race (β=-1.2, P=0.008), advancing age (β=-0.05 unit/year, P<0.001), those with inflammatory rheumatologic conditions (β=-2.3, P<0.001), and commercial insurance (β=-2.6, P<0.001). 

Patients who are current smokers, female, non-white, younger, have non-commercial insurance, primarily noninflammatory rheumatologic conditions, and who reside further from exercise facilities, do worse as measured by the RAPID3. These factors should be considered when optimizing therapies for the rheumatology patient population.

Keywords

Built environment, Health geography, Sociodemographics, Chronic pain

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