The 'Outdoor Rehab-Fit' App-based Physical Activity Education Intervention for Frail Older Adults in Hong Kong

NCT06326710 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: P0045122
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 36
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

In recent years, research teams around the world have developed interventions to educate older adults to use outdoor exercise facilities (OEFs) to improve health outcomes like strength, balance, mobility, PA level, and weight. These interventions employed trainers or therapists to instruct, and monitor exercise training for older adults using the public accessible OEFs. Apart from therapist or trainer-led intervention, an Australian research team developed a mobile application, and social support strategies to help participants to use OEFs to enhance their aerobic and resistance-based PA. A recent local in-depth qualitative study discovered that OEFs in Hong Kong attracted frailer older adults (i.e., those who recovered from a major illness or who has chronic diseases), and their caregivers to use OEFs to support and maintain their daily PA behavior. Some used OEFs to complement their formal rehabilitation sessions. It appears that OEFs in Hong Kong serves as an important health maintenance space for frailer older adults in the city to "age in place", yet educational training related to OEFs has been lacking over the years. Signage besides the exercise equipment has been the only education material for users over the years. A mobile app-based physical activity education intervention will be developed for frail old adults in Hong Kong. The intervention has two components: (1) mobile app; and (2) face-to-face group session that teaches the how to use correctly and safely use OEF in public parks to maintain PA habits. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and pilot effectiveness of the 'Outdoor Rehab-Fit' App-based physical activity education intervention. Primary outcomes include recruitment rate, retention rate, attrition rate, attendance, perceived usefulness of the app. Secondary outcomes include exercise self-efficacy, mental well-being, physical activity level. This study adopts a mixed-method design with quantitative and qualitative method. This study is a pilot randomized controlled trial, running for 4 months evaluating of the effectiveness of the mHealth intervention. 40 frail older adults will be randomized into (i) mHealth group or (ii) control group. Quantitative analysis will be adopted to investigate the effectiveness of the 'Outdoor Rehab-Fit' App-based physical activity education intervention on the health outcomes of frail older adults. The qualitative component will consist of semi-structure interviews with the frail older adults to understand the acceptability of the intervention.

Conditions

Physical Inactivity; Frailty

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (6)

• Feasibility outcome: Recruitment rate

  Will be assessed by study record e.g., attendance log in recruitment seminar. It is calculated based on the percentage of who signed up for the study and the total number of approached participants.

  Baseline

• Feasibility outcome: Intervention completion rate

  Will be assessed by a self-invented record form. It is calculated based on the percentage of completion of all intervention components (Including workshop attendance, app usage and outdoor practice).

  Month 1

• Feasibility outcome: Attrition rate

  Will be assessed by study record. It indicates the rate at which participants dropped out or discontinued their participation in the study.

  Month 1

• Feasibility outcome: Attendance

  Will be assessed by study record (e.g., attendance log). It is the percentage of sessions attended over all the offered sessions.

  Month 1

• Acceptability outcome: Perceived Usefulness on Outdoor Rehab-Fit App

  Will be assessed by self-invented questionnaire. It measures participant's perceptions of the app's usefulness. The questionnaire consists of 3 domains.Overall score ranges from 20 to 100. Higher score indicates higher perceived usefulness.

  Month 1

• Acceptability outcome: Participants' views about the barriers and facilitation of the mHealth program

  Will be assessed by semi-structured interview guide.

  Month 1

Secondary Outcomes (5)

• Change in Physical activity level (Objective) at 1 month and 3 months

  Baseline, Month 1, Month 3

• Change in Physical activity level (Subjective) at 1 month and 3 months

  Baseline, Month 1, Month 3

• Change in Exercise self-efficacy at 1 month and 3 months

  Baseline, Month 1, Month 3

• Change in Mental well-being at 1 month and 3 months

  Baseline, Month 1, Month 3

• Change in usage of outdoor exercise facilities

  Baseline, Month 1, Month 3

Study Arms (2)

mHealth Group

EXPERIMENTAL

This arm of participants will be receiving 4 sessions of face-to-face or online delivered mHealth intervention.

Behavioral: mHealth

Control Group

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

This arm of participants will be receiving 4 sessions of face-to-face or online exercise delivered health talks.

Behavioral: Health Talk

Interventions

mHealth BEHAVIORAL

Participants receive 4 sessions of face-to-face or online delivered workshop on how to use the mobile app "Outdoor Rehab-Fit" to support their daily PA level. In addition to the workshop, participants have to go to public parks to practice what they have learnt from the mobile app.

mHealth Group

Health Talk BEHAVIORAL

Participants receive 4 sessions of face-to-face or online delivered health talks on the benefits different types of modified exercises for frail older adults (chair yoga, seated eight-section brocades, Otago and seated multi-component exercise). Each talk has an experiential session.

Control Group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 55 Years - 100 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• community-dwelling men or women aged 55 years or over
• meeting at least one items of the FRAIL scale
• passing the Physical Activity Readiness- Questionnaire
• owning a smart phone for daily use
• signing the informed consent documents

You may not qualify if:

• older adult participants who achieved adequate level of daily physical activity, as defined as engaging in moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity for at least 150 minutes per week
• scoring 0 or 5 in the FRAIL scale

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The Hong Kong Polytechnic University: lead

Study Sites (1)

Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Lee JLC, Wong AYL, Ng PHF, Fu SN, Fong KNK, Cheng ASK, Lee KNK, Sun R, Zhang HY, Xiao R. Outdoor Exercise Facility-Based Integrative Mobile Health Intervention to Support Physical Activity, Mental Well-Being, and Exercise Self-Efficacy Among Older Adults With Prefrailty and Frailty in Hong Kong: Pilot Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial Study. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2025 Jun 5;13:e69259. doi: 10.2196/69259.

  PMID: 40471669 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Sedentary Behavior; Frailty

Interventions

Telemedicine

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior; Pathologic Processes; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Delivery of Health Care; Patient Care Management; Health Services Administration

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: SUPPORTIVE CARE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Research Assistant Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 11, 2024
• First Posted: March 22, 2024
• Study Start: April 1, 2024
• Primary Completion: October 1, 2024
• Study Completion: October 2, 2024
• Last Updated: October 3, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-04

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

HK (1)