A Novel Intervention to Promote Engagement in Physical Activity for Individuals With Whiplash Associated Disorder

Summary

Approximately 50% of adults who have a whiplash injury experience ongoing pain and disability from whiplash associated disorder (WAD). Causes are multifactorial, with considerable variation. Studies evaluating interventions for this population have used group-level design and analysis and, to date, findings have been equivocal and optimal treatment remains a challenge. In addition to pain and disability, patients are frequently insufficiently active for good health, increasing their risk of preventable morbidity and mortality, and compounding the effects of WAD. The proposed study will evaluate an intervention with two novel features. Firstly, the focus is not directly on the reduction of neck pain and disability, but aims to evaluate whether evidence-based health promotion/behavior change strategies can be successfully applied to increase physical activity promotion in this population. The investigator's hypothesis is that the intervention will not only increase participation in health enhancing physical activity, but through that engagement, patients will gain increased confidence to engage in activity in the presence of neck pain, thereby reducing pain-related disability. Secondly, the Single Case Experimental Design enables individual level analysis that is not possible with typical group level designs, including identification of characteristics of responders and non-responders.

Conditions

• Whiplash Injuries
• Sedentary Lifestyle

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

intervention

The adapted physical activity (APA) intervention is a theory-based physical activity (PA) promotion intervention. The APA model is comprised of 4 steps: 1) pre-participation evaluation of physiological, personal and environmental factors that influence PA adoption and maintenance; 2) application of individualised, evidence based strategies associated with increased PA participation tailored to the participant's motivational readiness; 3) development of structured exercise and/or lifestyle PA program; and 4) tailored relapse prevention strategies to maintain physical activity beyond the duration of the program. The intervention will be conducted in the participant's home environment.

OTHER

B

Participants will undertake their usual activities during the baseline period. An extended pre-intervention time frame is needed to establish a stable control phase and enhance internal validity.

OTHER

Follow-up

Participants will have no contact with intervention personnel during the 5 week follow-up, withdrawal period. The withdrawal phase enables initial assessment of physical activity behavior change.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The University of Queensland

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Carrie Ritchie, PhD · The University of Queensland

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

SEQUENTIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-05-07

Primary Completion

2018-12-03

Completion

2018-12-10

Countries

• Australia

Study Locations