Abstract
Background
Older adults are usually less physically active than younger adults. Physical inactivity can lead to frailty, which can increase the possibility of being admitted in a hospital and, being functional limited. To handle frailty Stranded is developed. Within this platform the user will be shipwrecked and has to build a boat to leave an uninhibited island. The user can leave the island by executing physical exercises and playing cognitive games. The primary aim focussed on differences in quality of life and perceived health status after using Stranded (TRL7). The secondary aim focussed on the usability of and user experience with Stranded. This study was conducted within the FRAIL-project (Eurostars-2 10.824).
Methods
An observational cohort study with a pre-test/post-test design was carried out. The pre-test measurements were performed before the use of Stranded, and the post-test measurements after using it for four weeks. The study population consisted of older adults, 55 years of age or older and each subject signed an informed consent form.
Results
One hundred and eleven older adults were included in this study (64.9% female and 35.1% male) and 91 participants started using Stranded. In total, 59 subjects dropped out. Two health variables significantly increased (n = 52), the subjects' perceived health state on a visual analogue scale and the subjects' quality of life viewed from the positive health perspective. Stranded's usability scored an average of 61.3 (SD = 21.6). The average scores on the user experience domains were all between 3.3 and 3.9 on a 7-point scale. The subjects did not have a strong negative or positive opinion about these domains.
Conclusions
The average quality of life increased slightly. It is hard to find an appropriate population to investigate the effects of these innovations, because of not willing to include too frail older adults for whom participating could be intensive. The usability was perceived as acceptable.
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