Improving Balance for Older Adults: Disseminating Tai Chi Fundamentals Through Community Organizations

University of Wisconsin (UW)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Older Aged Adults; Balance

Treatments: Behavioral: Tai-chi prime (TCP)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04447001

PHARM/PHARMACY/PHARMACY (Other Identifier)

2015-0897

A561000 (Other Identifier)

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will evaluate how best to disseminate and implement Tai Chi Fundamentals® (TCF) in community settings for older adults with balance problems. TCF is a program designed for older adults with pain and physical limitations to enhance balance, coordination, strength and endurance. Investigator will evaluate program implementation including Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) uptake, reach, feasibility, teaching fidelity, and exercise adherence and also collect outcomes including leg strength, balance, walking ability and executive function before and after the 6-week session. The final product of this study will be recommendations to address key barriers and facilitators for implementation of TCF by community organizations serving older adults.

The primary aim for this study is to evaluate the program implementation. This is not an efficacy study. Within the limits of a Dissemination and Implementation grant budget, Investigators do take advantage of a natural experiment even if it is not the primary aim of this study. By doing so investigators plan to establish the feasibility of this multi-site data collection plan for future studies. Based on the study settings, study team will get a chance to explore the effect of TCF in real world settings since two sessions can be held in a fall season and a spring season. In addition to the pre-post tests of TCF sessions to explore TCF effectiveness, pre-test scores for session 2 are compared to post-test scores of session 1 participants since both are collected at nearly the same time. The larger sample will be for the within group pre-post comparison analyses. This will be a valuable opportunity to test data collection procedures for future trials.

Enrollment: 197 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 65+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• being 65 years and older
• dwelling independently in the community
• agreeing to be randomized
• reporting a fall (to the ground or lower level in the last year or having a strong fear of falling.

Exclusion criteria

• using a walker indoors
• having a terminal illness
• being hospitalized or in a nursing home in the past 2 months
• anticipated absence from two tai chi sessions and
• receiving physical therapy or a community course or balance exercise program for falls prevention in the prior 2 months

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

197 participants in 2 patient groups

Tai Chi Prime (TCP)-session 1

Experimental group

Description:

This arm will receive Tai chi prime as an intervention. TCP is a combination of two components: (a) Tai-chi fundamental Adapted Program, and (b) home practice coaching.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Tai-chi prime (TCP)

Wait list control-session 2

No Intervention group

Description:

Wait-list group will be receiving Tai-chi prime intervention after 8 weeks wait time. At week 7, pre-test measures from wait-list group will be used as a control and compared with the post intervention measures of the experimental group.