Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Mar 12, 2020
Date Accepted: Oct 15, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
The effects of Activity Tracker use with health professional support or Telephone Counselling on maintenance of physical activity and health outcomes in older adults: A Randomised Controlled Trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Despite a range of efforts to increase physical activity participation in Australia, inactivity levels in older adults remain high and unchanged over the last two decades, contributing to increase rates of chronic health conditions. Lifestyle intervention, including telephone counselling have shown to be effective at improving physical activity participation and associated health outcomes over the short-term, however ongoing feedback and support is often required to maintain these changes. This study there aims to investigate how newer technologies such as wearable activity trackers may assist in proving ongoing support to maintain physical activity levels and health outcomes. Newer technologies such as wearable activity trackers may offer an alternative method for providing ongoing support.
Objective:
This study aims to investigate how newer technologies such as wearable activity trackers may assist in proving ongoing support to maintain physical activity levels and health outcomes.
Methods:
117 participants who had just completed a 12-week face-to-face individualised exercise program were randomised to receive either AT (n=37), TC (n=38) or UC (n=42). All groups received a home-exercise program and optional referral to a community-based exercise program. The AT group also received an activity tracker and text message feedback from an Accredited Exercise Physiologist (AEP). The TC group received phone calls from an AEP throughout the 12-month intervention. The primary outcome was daily steps measured by an ActivPAL™ accelerometer at baseline, 3, 6 and 12-months. Secondary outcome measures included body composition, blood pressure, Ten-time sit to stand, timed up and go and cardiorespiratory fitness. This trial was approved by the Tasmanian Health and Medical Human Research Ethics Committee (H0014713).
Results:
At baseline, participants (64% female, 72.4 ± 6.4 years) completed 6136 ± 2985 steps per day. Both the AT and TC groups maintained daily step counts and lean mass throughout the 12-month intervention while UC showed a significant reduction in daily steps and lean mass at 12 months (MD; - 981 steps, 9%CI; -1668 steps to -294 steps P > .003, MD; -1.13kg, 95%CI; -2.26kg to -0.01kg, P=.05 respectively).
Conclusions:
The use of an activity tracker with AEP support or telephone counselling are effective at maintaining daily step count and lean mass in older adults over a 12-month period, suggesting that wearable activity trackers are as effective as telephone counselling. Further research to investigate which option is more cost effective would be beneficial. Clinical Trial: This study is registered at www.anzctr.org.au (ACTRN12615001104549).
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