Choose to Move - Next Steps: Can 'Booster Sessions' Sustain Health Benefits of an Effective, Scaled-up, Health Promotion Program?

Summary

One-third of Canadians will be older adults (\>65y) by 2050. Thus, healthy aging is a public health priority. Many older adult health promoting interventions have been implemented, yet few were scaled-up and sustained. Choose to Move (CTM) is an effective, adaptable, community-based health promotion program for older adults. CTM, co-created with government and community stakeholders, has been scaled-up across British Columbia (BC) using a phased approach (2015-2021). The investigators evaluated the impact of CTM on the health of seniors who participated and the results were extremely positive: CTM increased mobility, physical activity, social connectedness and improved mental health indicators like loneliness. When these outcomes were assessed again, one year after the end of CTM, these improvements had diminished.

In this trial the investigators aim to determine if health benefits of CTM can be maintained by providing ongoing support to CTM participants. Booster interventions have been defined as "brief contacts beyond the main part of the intervention to reinforce previous intervention content" (Fjeldsoe et al., 2011, p. 601). Choose to Move - Next Steps (CTM-NS) is a two-year intervention where participants who recently completed CTM will receive different doses of a 'booster' program. Specifically, participants will be randomly allocated to virtual group meetings on a monthly (study arm 1; high dose) or quarterly (study arm 2; low dose) basis. Group meetings will be facilitated by an Activity Coach.

Objectives:

The investigators will conduct 1) impact, 2) implementation, and 3) economic evaluations of CTM-NS across 24 months.

Hypotheses:

For objective 1, the investigators hypothesize that improvements in older adult participant outcomes (primary outcome: mobility; secondary outcomes: physical activity, loneliness, social isolation, social connectedness, sitting time, screen time, social network, health status) obtained during CTM will be maintained over the 2 year CTM-NS study. Participants in the monthly group meetings (study arm 1) will maintain benefits to a greater degree than participants in the quarterly group meetings (study arm 2). Objectives 2 and 3 are descriptive and therefore have no hypotheses.

Conditions

• Aging
• Mobility Limitation
• Sedentary Behavior
• Loneliness
• Social Isolation

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Choose to Move - Next Steps

Choose to Move - Next Steps consists of a series of group meetings delivered virtually for 2 years. Group meetings (1-hr each) of 6-11 older adults will be facilitated by a trained Activity Coach and delivered remotely via the Zoom or GoToMeeting platform (password protected; access through phone or internet). Each group meeting will provide information on a health-related topic of interest and will include time for goal setting, discussion and sharing among participants. Older adults will have the option to sign up for a bi-weekly CTM electronic newsletter containing health information and ideas and resources for older adults to be physically active and socially connected at home (and elsewhere as local restrictions permit). Activity Coaches will also facilitate social connections between participants to encourage contact (by phone or online) outside of group sessions (for interested participants only).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Active Aging Society

  collaborator OTHER

• University of British Columbia

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Heather A McKay, PhD · University of British Columbia

• Joanie Sims-Gould, PhD · University of British Columbia

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

60 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-01-07

Primary Completion

2025-01-29

Completion

2025-01-29

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations