NCT04053829

Brief Summary

This study will utilise an assessor blinded, randomised controlled design to investigate the acceptability and feasibility of providing a novel tele-rehabilitation balance training system (HOLOBalance) for community dwelling older adults at risk for falls. Older adults (age 65-80) who meet the inclusion criteria (e.g. independently living, no neurological conditions) will be recruited from falls services and from the wider community (via AgeUK) and will be randomly allocated to receive either a prescribed exercise programme delivered by: 1) the HOLOBalance tele-rehabilitation system or 2) an exercise booklet (The OTAGO Home Exercise Programme). Participants will be required to perform a series of prescribed exercises each day (duration of up to 30 minutes per day) for the entirety of the 8-week exercise programme. These exercises will be provided via the HOLOBalance tele-rehabilitation system (intervention arm) or by written instructions (control arm). Primary objectives for this study are to assess recruitment rate, compliance with exercise programmes (exercise diaries) and drop-out rates within the intervention group and a control group undertaking standard practice, home based balance rehabilitation (the OTAGO Home Exercise Programme) to explore whether HOLOBalance is acceptable to participants. Furthermore, acceptability to older adults will also be investigated via exit interviews performed within the HOLOBalance tele-rehabilitation intervention arm. Feasibility will be assessed by documenting adverse events (and SAE's), adverse device effects (and SADE's), deviations from protocol and feedback from treating clinicians. Implementation issues such as technology break down, service delivery and usability issues will also be documented. Secondary outcomes to explore trends for effectiveness will investigate performance of both groups at baseline and after the 8 week intervention across a range of outcome measures associated with balance function and falls risk, cognitive function, Physical activity and social participation, and subjective report of mobility and balance.

Trial Health

43
At Risk

Trial Health Score

Automated assessment based on enrollment pace, timeline, and geographic reach

Trial has exceeded expected completion date
Enrollment
120

participants targeted

Target at P50-P75 for not_applicable

Timeline
Completed

Started Sep 2020

Shorter than P25 for not_applicable

Geographic Reach
1 country

1 active site

Status
unknown

Health score is calculated from publicly available data and should be used for screening purposes only.

Trial Relationships

Click on a node to explore related trials.

Study Timeline

Key milestones and dates

First Submitted

Initial submission to the registry

July 26, 2019

Completed
18 days until next milestone

First Posted

Study publicly available on registry

August 13, 2019

Completed
1.1 years until next milestone

Study Start

First participant enrolled

September 1, 2020

Completed
7 months until next milestone

Primary Completion

Last participant's last visit for primary outcome

April 1, 2021

Completed
Same day until next milestone

Study Completion

Last participant's last visit for all outcomes

April 1, 2021

Completed
Last Updated

September 2, 2020

Status Verified

August 1, 2020

Enrollment Period

7 months

First QC Date

July 26, 2019

Last Update Submit

September 1, 2020

Conditions

Keywords

RehabilitationTele-rehabilitationPhysical TherapyCoachingPhysical Activity

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (6)

  • Acceptability Assessment 1: Recruitment Rate

    Assessment of recruitment rate of study (% of eligible participants enrolled)

    Through study completion (12 months)

  • Acceptability Assessment 2: Programme Compliance

    Comparison of compliance with exercise programmes (% of sessions completed) within the intervention group and a control group undertaking standard practice, home based balance rehabilitation (the OTAGO Home Exercise Programme).

    Through study completion (12 months)

  • Acceptability Assessment 3: Drop out rate

    Comparison of drop-out rates (%) between the intervention group and a control group undertaking standard practice, home based balance rehabilitation (the OTAGO Home Exercise Programme).

    Through study completion (12 months)

  • Acceptability 4: Qualitative interview

    Acceptability of HOLOBalance to older adults will be investigated via exit interviews performed within the tele-rehabilitation intervention arm.

    Collected at end of each participants participation in the study (After 8 weeks)

  • Feasibility of providing HOLOBalance 1: Monitoring of Adverse and Serious Adverse Events

    Feasibility will be assessed by documenting adverse events (and SAE's) and adverse device effects (and SADE's).

    Through study completion (12 months)

  • Feasibility of providing HOLOBalance 2: Monitoring for deviations from study protocol

    Assessment of any deviations from protocol reported logged in the site files using the deviation from protocol form.

    Through study completion (12 months)

Secondary Outcomes (11)

  • Balance Function Assessment

    Baseline (Week 0) and Follow up (Week 9)

  • Balance Function Assessment

    Baseline (Week 0) and Follow up (Week 9)

  • Cognitive Function Assessment

    Baseline (Week 0) and Follow up (Week 9)

  • Cognitive Function Assessment

    Baseline (Week 0) and Follow up (Week 9)

  • Subjective Questionnaire

    Baseline (Week 0) and Follow up (Week 9)

  • +6 more secondary outcomes

Study Arms (2)

HOLOBalance

EXPERIMENTAL

The experimental arm will use the HOLOBalance tele-rehabilitation system to provide the intervention. Participants will be required to use the HOLOBalance system on a daily basis for the duration of the 8 week study. Although participants will have daily interaction with the HOLOBalance system, they will be free to choose when to complete their exercises.

Device: HOLOBalance

OTAGO Home Exercise Programme

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

The comparator for this study is the OTAGO home exercise programme. The OTAGO is a systematic, progressive strength and balance training programme and is supported by a comprehensive workbook that provides written and pictorial instructions for each exercise. The OTAGO is well-established and is widely used in clinical practice in the UK for the management of older adults who fall or have increased risk for falling. It has been shown to be well tolerated in older adults in community settings with good adherence rates, and reduces falls rate in older adults by 35%, with greatest effects observed in frailer older women

Other: OTAGO Home Exercise Programme

Interventions

The HOLOBalance tele-rehabilitation system will be used to deliver an evidence based, multi-sensory balance rehabilitation programme to participants, and will deliver a series of exercises prescribed by an expert balance physiotherapist following an initial balance assessment. The HOLOBalance system will use a head mounted augmented reality display to deliver exercises and games to participants and will record task performance via a combination of body worn sensors and a depth camera. The HOLOBalance tele-rehabilitation system will provide feedback to the supervising clinical team regarding task performance, participant usage and user feedback. The system will have daily presence in the users' home with users expected to complete their prescribed rehabilitation on a daily basis, which mirrors the prescribed exercise routines often provided by balance physiotherapists.

HOLOBalance

The OTAGO is a systematic, progressive strength and balance training programme and is supported by a comprehensive workbook that provides written and pictorial instructions for each exercise. It is well-established and widely used in clinical practice in the UK, and has been shown to reduce falls rate in older adults by 35-40%. It is well tolerated in older adults in community settings with good adherence rates.The OTAGO has also been used as the standard intervention in previous investigations of MSR interventions in older adults. To match intervention and control interventions, participants in the OTAGO group will be asked to complete the OTAGO programme every day for the duration of the 8 week programme.

OTAGO Home Exercise Programme

Eligibility Criteria

Age65 Years - 80 Years
Sexall
Healthy VolunteersNo
Age GroupsOlder Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

  • Independent community-dwelling participants able to walk 500 meters independently or with a stick
  • No significant visual impairment
  • Able to understand and to consent to the research
  • A score of \>22 on the MoCA, i.e. adults with no or mild cognitive impairment;
  • At risk of falls (i.e. FGA less than 22/30), have significant fear of falling (FESI short form \>10) or having experienced a fall/s in the last 12 months
  • Willing to participate and to comply with the proposed training and testing regime.
  • Available space of 1x2 metres at home and sufficient home broadband to allow the system to operate as designed

You may not qualify if:

  • Orthostatic hypotension or uncontrolled hypertension
  • Have depression i.e. a score of \>10 at the Geriatric depression scale
  • Have cognitive impairment as indicated by the MoCA score(score \<22)
  • Other neurological problem (stroke, Parkinson's, peripheral neuropathy)
  • Acute musculo-skeletal injury that prevents participation in a structured exercise programme (e.g. lower limb fracture)
  • No internet connection at home
  • Has participated in a clinical drug trial in the past 6 months
  • Currently receiving falls and/or cognitive rehabilitation.
  • Has an implanted medical device or cardiac pacemaker

Contact the study team to confirm eligibility.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Study Sites (1)

King's College London

London, SE1 1UL, United Kingdom

RECRUITING

Related Publications (2)

  • Tsakanikas V, Gatsios D, Pardalis A, Tsiouris KM, Georga E, Bamiou DE, Pavlou M, Nikitas C, Kikidis D, Walz I, Maurer C, Fotiadis D. Automated Assessment of Balance Rehabilitation Exercises With a Data-Driven Scoring Model: Algorithm Development and Validation Study. JMIR Rehabil Assist Technol. 2022 Aug 31;9(3):e37229. doi: 10.2196/37229.

  • Liston M, Genna G, Maurer C, Kikidis D, Gatsios D, Fotiadis D, Bamiou DE, Pavlou M. Investigating the feasibility and acceptability of the HOLOBalance system compared with standard care in older adults at risk for falls: study protocol for an assessor blinded pilot randomised controlled study. BMJ Open. 2021 Feb 12;11(2):e039254. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039254.

Related Links

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Vestibular DiseasesMotor Activity

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Labyrinth DiseasesEar DiseasesOtorhinolaryngologic DiseasesBehavior

Study Officials

  • Doris-Eva Bamiou, PhD

    University College, London

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
  • Marousa Pavlou, PhD

    King's College London

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Matthew Liston, PhD

CONTACT

Study Design

Study Type
interventional
Phase
not applicable
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Masking
SINGLE
Who Masked
OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
Masking Details
Only the outcome assessor will be masked in this study
Purpose
OTHER
Intervention Model
PARALLEL
Model Details: This multi-centre, assessor-blinded, randomised proof of concept study will explore the acceptability and feasibility of providing a home-based balance tele-rehabilitation programme to older adults at risk for falls. It will 1) compare acceptability of the tele-health programme (e.g. compliance, drop-out rate) to an established home exercise programme (the OTAGO HEP) and 2) explore trends for effectiveness across a number of validated outcome measures to explore whether a future trial is warranted, and if so to provide data for a sample size estimate. Data will be collected at baseline (week 0) and at completion of the intervention (week 9). The flow of participants through the trial will be recorded in compliance with the CONSORT statement. The blinded outcome assessor will collect all measures at baseline and follow up and will be asked to record any incidences of unblinding and detail how this occurred.
Sponsor Type
OTHER
Responsible Party
SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

First Submitted

July 26, 2019

First Posted

August 13, 2019

Study Start

September 1, 2020

Primary Completion

April 1, 2021

Study Completion

April 1, 2021

Last Updated

September 2, 2020

Record last verified: 2020-08

Data Sharing

IPD Sharing
Will share

Electronic data will be anonymised and uploaded to a data repository that supports restricted access.Restricted access will be required for the data generated from the study participants.These files will not be made publicly available and sharing will be made possible only by the approval of the Holobalance data management board, and use and re-use of the pilot dataset will be subject to the license under which the data objects were deposited. Holobalance will also consider to deposit the content under an embargo status and provide an end date for the embargo in order to explore exploitation possibilities which affect the availability of data for third parties and usually is not finalized before the end of the project and the outcomes of the pilot study.

Shared Documents
STUDY PROTOCOL
Time Frame
Upon completion of all project outcomes and assessments for commercial exploitation.
Access Criteria
Sharing will be made possible only by the approval of the Holobalance data management board, and use and re-use of the pilot dataset will be subject to the license under which the data objects were deposited.

Locations