Make Every Step Count: Personalised Music Feedback to Walking for People Living With COPD

Summary

Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) is an evidence-based intervention to effectively manage the physiological and psychological effects of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The aims of PR are to improve symptoms of COPD, increase exercise capacity, increase independency, improve overall behaviour related to health (like exercising more), and enhance quality of life. The cornerstone of PR programmes is aerobic exercise prescription. Typically, walking exercise is used, and the prescription is individualised for each patient based on their maximal walking exercise capacity. However, adherence to walking exercise is challenging for service users, particularly when unsupervised at home. The use of music during exercise shows promise as a tool to decrease the perception of fatigue and increase motivation, but the integration of music via smartphone applications to support walking exercise adherence during PR has not been explored. This project aims to assess if a new mobile application BeatClearWalker (BCW) intervention is practical, acceptable, and effectively used by people living with COPD. The app is designed to help people living with COPD attending PR adhere to their prescribed walking pace during exercise. The BCW app provides real-time, personalised music feedback through music degradation to optimise the dose of walking exercise.

Conditions

• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
• Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease
• Chronic Obstructive Airway Disease

Interventions

DEVICE

Music walking application BeatClearWalker (BCW)

The music walking application (BCW) is a smartphone application that can monitor the walking pace and allow individuals to listen to music and give immediate feedback so they can correct their walking pace to match their target walking speed, as prescribed by the healthcare professional. The application provides real-time audio feedback in the form of music; the music sound quality will reduce whenever the walking speed drops below or exceeds the participant\'s target walking speed. Simply, the application will work to supervise service users while exercising walking. The investigators are trying to assess the feasibility of this application with service users during their Pulmonary Rehabilitation programme (at the hospital/ home) to find out how participants interact with listening to music while exercise walking and how well they're able to keep to their target speed.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Strathclyde

  collaborator OTHER

• University Hospitals, Leicester

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Leicester

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Mark Orme, PhD · University of Leicester

• Linzy Houchen-Wolloff, PhD · NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre - Respiratory, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

• Sally J Singh, PhD · NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre - Respiratory, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-04-20

Primary Completion

2025-09-12

Completion

2025-09-26

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations