Hands-Up: Exercise and Education Program After a Wrist Fracture

Summary

Osteoporosis is a bone disease that increases the risk of fractures. People aged 50-65 diagnosed with osteoporosis feel too young to have the disease. But this happens. They need to learn how to modify their lifestyle to minimize the chances of fractures. In this age group, a wrist fracture is usually the first sign of osteoporosis. Fracture risk increases if they are not taught to exercise, eat properly, and identifies fall risk factors early in their diagnosis. Some studies have looked at interventions for osteoporosis in women over the age of 65, but by this age they have likely already had a spine fracture. No studies have addressed the early-onset osteoporosis age group, intervening before spine fractures occur. I will develop an exercise, nutrition, and falls prevention education program to improve the strength, balance and knowledge of people aged 50-65 who had an osteoporotic wrist fracture. I will use this treatment approach and determine if it is more effective than the usual way of treating people with wrist fractures, determining if this is a better strategy for managing osteoporosis. I will have two groups of patients. First, those, over six weeks, receive twice weekly classes that include exercise and education. Here the focus is on bone health and fracture prevention. The control will receive usual physical therapy and the educational materials at the end of their study participation. The treatment will be randomly allocated to 74 men and women between the ages of 50-65 years of age who are 6-10 weeks post-fracture. The outcomes on both groups will be assessed and compared. I will focus on hand function, balance, fall hazard detection, and a bone health behaviour checklist. Using these outcomes, I can determine which treatment approach works best. Osteoporosis affects one in three women and one in five men, making this an important study to improve the lives for many Canadians. The risk of osteoporosis fractures increases with age, making early interventions critical.

Conditions

• Distal Radius Fracture
• Osteoporosis

Interventions

OTHER

Hands-Up Program

In addition to the usual care, being allocated to the intervention group would require the participant to attend an exercise and education program once their cast has been removed and they've restored some strength and function in their hand and wrist. The exercise portion of the intervention will focus on strength and balance training, with aspects of managing our distal radius fracture healing as well. The education will focus on learning about risk factors for a distal radius fracture, osteoporosis, exercise for adults, nutrition for adults and falls prevention strategies.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Western University, Canada

  collaborator OTHER

• London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute OR Lawson Research Institute of St. Joseph's

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

50 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-03-10

Primary Completion

2022-03-01

Completion

2022-09-01

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations