A Feasibility Study of a Mobile Application Intervention to Promote Strength and Balance Exercises in Older People

Umeå University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Accidental Falls

Treatments: Other: OEP; Other: Safe Step

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Industry

Identifiers

NCT02916849

SafeStep

Details and patient eligibility

About

This five arm feasibility study aims to promote self-management in strength and balance exercises among community-living older people. The research process, implementation strategies and procedures, acceptability of the exercise programs, perceived benefits of the programs, and the ecological validity, acceptability and ability to detect change of possible outcome measurements will be evaluated before a future randomized controlled trial. A comparison of two exercise programs will be performed; a) Safe Step, a mobile technology based exercise program with motivational strategies, developed by researchers in collaboration with older adults, and b) Otago Exercise Program (OEP), home exercises presented in a booklet. The older participants will be free to select either of the intervention programs and the selection process and outcome will be studied as part of the process evaluation.

The participants in three of the arms (OEP, Safe Step, and Safe Step with mentors) will be recruited through advertisements in local papers and through posters and meetings at senior citizens organisations. In the fourth and fifth arms (OEP and Safe Step) the participants will be recruited from health care centres and their registered professionals with experience of greens prescriptions (Fysisk aktivitet på recept). All five groups, with at least 10 participants in each, will be exercising for four months and will undergo testing at baseline, after two and four months and they will be asked to keep an exercise diary (digital or paper format) during the intervention.

Enrollment: 69 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 70+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Independently living
• Able to rise from a high chair
• Able to stand without support
• Experience an impaired balance

Exclusion criteria

• Progressive disease that impairs mobility
• Dementia diagnosis
• Intense exercising more than 3 hours / week

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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69 participants in 5 patient groups

Safe Step - Health Care Centre

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be recruited informed and asked for participation in the study by health care professionals. If included in the study, and choosing the Safe Step exercise program as intervention, participants will be given a green prescription for exercise using the application Safe Step. After an introduction meeting in small groups and pre-assessments the participants will create an individual exercise programme containing ten balance and leg strengthening exercises in the application. During the four month intervention the participants will create weekly exercise plan, keep a digital exercise diary, and receive motivational feed-back within the system. The participants will be recommended to exercise at least three times per week and for at least 30 minutes at a time.

Treatment:

Other: Safe Step

OEP - Health Care Centre

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants will be recruited informed and asked for participation in the study by health care professionals. If included in the study, and choosing the Otago Exercise Program as intervention in the study participants will be given a green prescription for exercise with the Otago Home Exercise Programme-booklet. After an introduction meeting in small groups and pre-assessments the participants will create an individual exercise programme containing ten balance and leg strengthening exercises using the booklet for guidance. During the four month intervention the participants will keep a paper-based exercise diary that will be sent to the researchers on a monthly basis. The participants will be recommended to exercise at least three times per week and for at least 30 minutes at a time.

Treatment:

Other: OEP

Safe Step - Advertising

Experimental group

Description:

Participants are recruited through meetings at senior citizens organisations and interviewed by telephone for background data and choice of intervention before inclusion. After an introduction meeting in small groups and pre-assessments the participants will create an individual exercise programme containing ten balance and leg strengthening exercises in the Safe Step application. During the four month intervention the participants will create weekly exercise plan, keep a digital exercise diary, and receive motivational feed-back within the system. The participants will be recommended to exercise at least three times per week and for at least 30 minutes at a time

Treatment:

Other: Safe Step

Safe Step mentors- Advertising

Experimental group

Description:

This arm is exactly the same as the Safe Step Advertising group except the participants will be invited to attend group meetings with peer mentors, once a month during the intervention. The peer mentors are older adults earlier involved in the research project . They will act as role models and encourage the participants throughout the four months of exercise.

Treatment:

Other: Safe Step

OEP - Advertising

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants are recruited through meetings at senior citizens organisations and interviewed by telephone for background data and choice of intervention before inclusion. After an introduction meeting in small groups and pre-assessments the participants will create an individual exercise programme containing ten balance and leg strengthening exercises using the Otago booklet for guidance. During the four month intervention the participants will keep a paper-based exercise diary that will be sent to the researchers on a monthly basis. The participants will be recommended to exercise at least three times per week and for at least 30 minutes at a time.

Treatment:

Other: OEP