The Effects of a Walking Program on Balance, Falls and Well Being in Individuals Residing in Long-term Care

Summary

The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a regular walking program (which inevitably involves human interaction) compared to a usual care condition and to a human interaction condition (without the extra walking program) in individuals residing in Long-Term Care (LTC). Outcomes of interest include: balance, strength, mobility, endurance, walking distance; rate and severity of falls; activities of daily living; mood and behaviour.

It is hypothesized that participants taking part in the walking program will demonstrate maximal benefits compared to the no treatment control group (usual care) and the participants who will only receive social interaction. It is expected that benefits of the walking program will include decreased fall rates, and improved balance, endurance, strength, mood, behaviour, activities of daily living and quality of life indices. Given research findings that the addition of pleasant activities improves resident mood (Teri et al, 1997; 2003), it is expected that participants in the social interaction only group will demonstrate improvements in mood and other indices of quality of life.

Conditions

• Accidental Falls
• Muscle Weakness
• Gait, Unsteady
• Depression
• Behavior

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Interpersonal Interaction

Participants will receive stationary 1:1 interaction time with the same research personnel who conduct the third group walking session at each individual care facility in order to control for the interpersonal interaction likely to be involved in the walking program (Interpersonal Interaction Group; IIG). This group will receive the equivalent interpersonal interaction time with research personnel as those participating in the WPG group. This interaction time will occur with the participant stationary, rather than walking with the researcher.

BEHAVIORAL

Walking Program

Participants will walk five times per week, supervised by a licensed physiotherapist. Subjects will in general gradually increase their daily supervised walking time as tolerated to a maximum of 30 minutes once per day. The distance and number of minutes walked each time will be recorded. Interpersonal interaction will occur during the walking sessions, and will be similar in quality and quantity to that during the Interpersonal Interaction Group.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Saskatchewan

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Lilian U Thorpe, MD, PhD · University of Saskatchewan

• Vanina Dal Bello-Haas, Ph. D, P.T. · McMaster University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

60 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2010-12-31

Primary Completion

2018-10-19

Completion

2018-10-19

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations