Dorsiflex at the ankles. Full-size table Table options View in workspace Download as CSV The control group were not taught any sham stretches and were advised MI-773 ic50 not to commence stretches. All participants were encouraged to maintain all other usual activity unchanged. At week 4, all participants received a home visit to assess and encourage adherence to the study protocol. At an instruction visit prior to starting the study, participants were instructed in the daily recording of the frequency and severity of nocturnal leg cramps. The primary outcome was the change

in the average number of nocturnal leg cramps per day over a one-week period. This was assessed in the week prior to starting the 6-week stretching program (Week 0) and again in the final week of the stretching program (Week 6). The secondary outcome was the severity of nocturnal leg cramps. The severity was marked by the participants on a 10-cm visual analogue scale with 0 cm representing no pain and 10 cm representing the

worst pain the participant could imagine. Recordings were again made in the daily diary over the same 1-week periods before and at the end of the 6-week stretching program. If adverse events were present, they were recorded daily in the diary card throughout the trial. We sought to identify a difference in the average number of nocturnal leg cramps selleck kinase inhibitor of 1 cramp per night. Anticipating a standard deviation of 1.4 cramps per night (Coppin et al 2005), we calculated that we would require 32 participants per group to have 80% power to detect this difference as significant with an alpha of 5%. To allow for drop outs, we increased the total sample size to 80 participants. All participants were analysed according to their group allocation, ie, using an intention-to-treat analysis. For each outcome, the difference between the experimental and control groups in the change from baseline to postintervention was calculated as a mean difference. Statistical

significance was set at p < 0.05, so these mean differences are presented with 95% confidence intervals. In total, 119 people responded to the study advertisement. Telephone screening of these respondents identified 39 as ineligible SB-3CT or unwilling to participate. The remaining 80 participants were randomised into the experimental or control group and completed the study, with 40 being allocated to each group. The flow of participants through the trial and reasons for exclusion are presented in Figure 2. The baseline characteristics of the participants are presented in Table 1 and the first two columns of Table 2. All participants completed their diary cards at Weeks 0 and 6 and reported that they maintained their usual daily activities throughout the study. No participants used quinine for the duration of the study. Group data for all outcomes are presented in Table 2. Individual data are presented in Table 3 (see eAddenda for Table 3).