Development and Evaluation of the Healthy Beat Accupunch (HBA) Exercise Program for the Community Older Adults

Kaohsiung Medical University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Functional Fitness

Treatments: Other: control; Other: Healthy Beat Accupunch exercise program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02567864

KMUH-IRB-20140089

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goals of this research project were: 1) to develop a senior-tailored Healthy Beat Accupunch (HBA) exercise program for community-dwelling older adults, 2) to test the effects of a six-month, instructor-led HBA exercise program, and 3) to evaluate the feasibility, compliance, and long-term effects of a six-month, DVD-guide HBA exercise program.

Full description

A three-year, longitudinal, triangulation research method was applied. First Year (Phase I): A preliminary HBA exercise program, including hard copy descriptions and DVD demonstrations of each exercise, was mailed to the 16 experts in the Delphi advisory panel for their critique and evaluation. First Year (Phase II): A quasi-experimental, one-group, pretest-posttest design was used to pilot-test the feasibility of the HBA exercise program on a group of 31 community-dwelling older adults in a community care station. Second Year: A cluster randomized controlled trial was used to test the effects of a six-month, instructor-led HBA exercise program on the functional fitness (cardiovascular-respiratory function, body flexibility, muscle strength, and muscle endurance) of the community-dwelling older adults. Through the use of convenience sampling strategy, eight community care stations with 232 older adults in Kaohsiung were recruited and randomly assigned based on their community care stations to a HBA experimental group or a wait-list control group. Participants in the experimental group received the HBA exercise program led by trained and certified instructors, three times per week, 40 minutes per practice for six months; participants in the wait-list control group continued with their regular daily activities. One pre-test and two post-tests, three months apart, were conducted. Third Year: Using the same method as in the second year, participants from the second year continued practicing the HBA exercise program, but guided by a DVD, for another six months. The feasibility, compliance, and effectiveness of the DVD-led HBA exercise program on the community-dwelling older adults were tested, and another two post-tests, three months apart, were conducted on the same outcome measurements as in the second year.

Enrollment: 232 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 65 to 100 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• community-dwelling older adults aged 65 and over
• Mandarin or Taiwanese speakers
• able to stand and walk without assistive devices
• cognitive alert and able to verbally state their name, address, and answer questions.

Exclusion criteria

• participants with severe and acute cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, or pulmonary illnesses.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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232 participants in 2 patient groups

Healthy Beat Accupunch

Experimental group

Description:

The HBA exercise program includes: 1) warm-up: 5 slow and gentle exercises to regulate qi, loosen up the body, and elevate the energy for a safe transition to the next phase, 2) accupunch: 14 low-to-medium speed exercises to punch the 14 meridians to enhance the cardiovascular-respiratory workout, and 3) relaxation: 5 low-speed, muscle relaxing exercises with deep breaths to sooth the body and mind. It is conducted 3 times per week and 40 minutes per practice.

Treatment:

Other: Healthy Beat Accupunch exercise program

control

Active Comparator group

Description:

The control group maintains daily activities.

Treatment:

Other: control