The VESPA Pilot Study

Summary

Physical activity has been described by the US federal government as a 'best buy' for public health. Unfortunately, most adults in the United States are not sufficiently active, and this worsens with age. Low levels of participation are driven by many challenging barriers, including lack of access, few opportunities for enjoyable activity, and few supportive social relationships, which is especially important given the central role of social connection for lasting behavior change.

A half-century of research in behavioral sciences has generated effective group-based physical activity programs, but these are inaccessible to most as they are often delivered in a few select research centers. Recent advances in telehealth have offered media for extending these interventions more broadly, but the experience of such programs is often hampered by technology that does not allow for a sense of physical and social presence. Fortunately, uptake of virtual reality (VR) is increasing rapidly, and the medium has a high level of potential for advancing the delivery of immersive evidence-based group interventions to those that most need it. Thus our specific aims are:

Specific aim 1: To test the feasibility and acceptability of a group-mediated physical activity intervention delivered fully via modern VR to older adults.

Specific aim 2: To examine the impact of this program on overall physical activity among older adults compared to the current standard-of-care for telehealth: the video conference meeting platform.

Conditions

• Exercise
• Behavior
• Loneliness
• Social Isolation

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Virtual Reality

Participants in this arm participate in 4 group-based behavioral counseling sessions plus 8 one-on-one coaching session within virtual reality software. Participants aim to engage in approximately 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous activity, with options including both virtual reality and real-world physical activities.

BEHAVIORAL

Video Conference

Participants in this arm participate in 4 group-based behavioral counseling sessions plus 8 one-on-one coaching session within video conference software. Participants aim to engage in approximately 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous activity, with options including both streaming video and real-world physical activities.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Wells Fargo Faculty Scholar Endowment

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Wake Forest University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Jason Fanning, PhD · Wake Forest University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

45 Years

Max Age

80 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-12-17

Primary Completion

2026-08-30

Completion

2026-12-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations