Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jun 21, 2019
Open Peer Review Period: Jun 24, 2019 - Aug 19, 2019
Date Accepted: Dec 16, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Impact of a mobility-focused knowledge translation randomized controlled trial on physical activity: the Move4Age study
ABSTRACT
Background:
The McMaster Optimal Aging Portal (the Portal) was launched in 2014 as a knowledge translation tool to increase access to evidence-based health information.
Objective:
The purpose of this study is to understand if and how dissemination of mobility information through the Portal impacts physical activity of older adults.
Methods:
In this randomized controlled trial, participants (n = 510) were assigned to a 12-week mobility-focused tailored knowledge translation intervention or self-serve control group. The intervention included weekly email alerts and a study-specific social media hashtag linking to mobility-focused Portal materials. The control group was able to access the Portal on their own, but did not receive targeted knowledge translation strategies. Participants completed questionnaires (including the Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity to quantify physical activity) at baseline, end-of-study, and three-month follow-up.
Results:
Participants were predominantly female (84.3%), mean age 64.7 years with no baseline differences between groups. Over half (54.3%) were classified as ‘active’ at baseline. Overall, both groups increased their physical activity with improvements maintained at three-month follow-up (p<0.001). There was no significant between-group difference in physical activity category. In planned subgroup analyses, the knowledge translation intervention had a significant effect for those with poor/fair baseline self-rated health (p=0.03).
Conclusions:
Accessing the Portal appears to increase physical activity amongst middle age and older adults, with changes that are sustained beyond participation in a research study. Findings suggest that different knowledge translation strategies may be useful for different types of users, with more intense interventions being most impactful for certain groups (i.e., those with lower self-rated health). Clinical Trial: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02947230, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02947230
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Copyright
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