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Short-term, Home-based, High-intensity Interval Training (HIT) for Improving Fitness (HomeHIT)

U

University of Nottingham

Status

Completed

Conditions

High-Intensity Interval Training

Treatments

Other: High-intensity interval training

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT03473990
C16122016

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will aim to evaluate the efficacy of a short-term, home-based, high-intensity interval (HIT) programme in improving cardiovascular fitness in healthy volunteers aged 55 and above, with an age-comparison to younger individuals taking part in the same training regime.

It will also explore the efficacy of time-matched 'static' interventions for improving cardiovascular parameters in middle-aged females and older adults.

Full description

Patients with lower peak oxygen uptake have higher mortality and morbidity when undergoing major surgery. Aerobic fitness is a potentially modifiable risk factor for postoperative complications.

Traditional pre-operative exercise interventions to improve fitness involve high time and supervision-demands, often resulting in poor compliance. High-intensity interval training (HIT) is a time-efficient, feasible method to improve pre-operative fitness, however current studies only involve exercise in the laboratory setting.

Study Design Thirty-six healthy volunteers aged 55y and over will be randomly allocated to one of three groups: 1) Laboratory-HIT; 2) Home-HIT; 3) No intervention. All HIT sessions will involve a brief warm-up, followed by five 1-minute bouts of high-intensity (body-weight based) exercise, interspersed with 90-seconds recovery, concluding with a brief cool-down. The primary endpoint of the study is change in VO2 peak with secondary endpoints of changes in: anaerobic threshold, insulin sensitivity and muscle mass.

Subjects will be expected to perform up to a maximum of 16 HIT sessions (maximum 5 sessions per week) within a period of 31 days. Aerobic fitness will be assessed prior to and following the exercise, as will body composition, muscle structure, physical function and insulin sensitivity.

For the age comparison, 24 young individuals will be recruited to either a control or home-HIT arm.

In addition, the efficacy of time-matched 'static' interventions for improving cardiovascular parameters in 24 middle-aged females will also be assessed as exploratory work for these interventions.

The efficacy of the static interventions in older adults at home will also be explored.

Power calculation: The investigators performed a power calculation for the primary outcome of VO2 max in older adults using data from a previous study at our centre on home versus laboratory HIIT. Assuming an effect size F of 0.6 for three groups and a within group SD of 5, the alpha level was set at 0.05 and the 1-beta at 0.80. This concluded that 30 participants would be required. To allow for potential non-completion and missing data 36 older participants will be enrolled to the study (12 to each group).

Enrollment

48 patients

Sex

All

Ages

55+ years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Age > 55 years Able to give informed consent

Exclusion criteria

  • Current participation in a formal exercise regime

  • A BMI < 18 or > 35 kg·m2

  • Active cardiovascular disease:

    • Uncontrolled hypertension (BP > 160/100)
    • Angina
    • Heart failure (class III/IV)
    • Significant arrhythmia
    • Right to left cardiac shunt
    • Recent cardiac event
  • Taking beta-adrenergic blocking agents

  • Cerebrovascular disease:

    • Previous stroke
    • Aneurysm (large vessel or intracranial)
    • Epilepsy
  • Respiratory disease including:

    • Pulmonary hypertension
    • Significant COPD
    • Uncontrolled asthma
  • Malignancy

  • Metabolic disease e.g. diabetic patients

  • Clotting dysfunction

  • Significant Musculoskeletal or neurological disorders

  • Family history of early (<55y) death from cardiovascular disease

Trial design

Primary purpose

Health Services Research

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Factorial Assignment

Masking

None (Open label)

48 participants in 3 patient groups

Laboratory HIT
Active Comparator group
Description:
Supervised (Laboratory HIT) exercise in the lab up to 4 times per week for 4 weeks
Treatment:
Other: High-intensity interval training
Home HIT
Active Comparator group
Description:
Unsupervised (Home HIT) exercise at home up to 4 times per week for 4 weeks
Treatment:
Other: High-intensity interval training
Control Group
No Intervention group
Description:
No intervention

Trial contacts and locations

1

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Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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