Adaptive sports for promoting physical activity in community-dwelling adults with stroke: A feasibility study

Author(s):  
Pradeepa Nayak ◽  
Amreen Mahmood ◽  
Senthil Kumaran D ◽  
Manikandan Natarajan ◽  
Bhaskaran Unnikrishnan ◽  
...  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steinunn Olafsdottir ◽  
Helga Jónsdóttir ◽  
Charlotte Magnusson ◽  
Héctor Caltenco ◽  
Mikko Kytö ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Novel technical solutions are called for to promote home-based exercise and facilitate engagement in physical activity among community-dwelling stroke survivors supported by their caregivers in the home environment. Lack of knowledge and resources on what to do and how to accomplish this has been demonstrated. OBJECTIVE To describe in detail the development of a technical intervention, ActivABLES, to promote home-based exercise and physical activity engagement of community-dwelling stroke survivors with support from their informal caregivers. METHODS Technical development process of ActivABLES was guided by Human-Centred Design and participatory design/co-design as well as the Medical Research Council (MRC) framework for the development and evaluation of complex interventions. The main steps included: (a) Synthesis of the evidence supported the inclusion of balance exercises, mobility and walking exercises, exercises for the upper arm and means to decrease sedentary behavior; b) Initial user studies with qualitative data collection from individual interviews with stroke survivors and focus group interviews with informal caregivers and health professionals; c) Preliminary testing of eight prototypes with seven stroke survivors and their informal caregivers which included introduction and testing of the prototypes; d) Feasibility study of six prototypes with ten stroke survivors and their informal caregivers which included use of ActivABLES for four weeks. RESULTS After the preliminary testing of eight prototypes, four prototypes were not further developed whereas four prototypes were modified further. In addition, two new prototypes were developed, leaving six prototypes constructed for use in the feasibility study. These included: 1) ActivFOAM, a soft mat for balance exercises, 2) WalkingSTARR, an iPhone application to facilitate walking, 3) ActivBALL, a soft ball for hand exercises, 4) ActivSTICKS, two linked plastic sticks for upper arm exercises and trunk rotation and 5) the ActivLAMP and 6) the ActivTREE which both give visual feedback (lights) for progress of daily exercise and physical activities. ActivFOAM, ActivBALL and ActivSTICKS are all connected to a tablet where exercise instructions are given. All the exercise prototypes can be connected to ActivLAMP and ActivTREE to give feedback on how much exercise the user has done. Settings can be individualized and recommended daily time and/or repetition can easily be changed as the user further progresses to higher activity levels. CONCLUSIONS The development process of ActivABLES was guided by the human-centred design, with iterative testing of future users, and the MRC framework of complex intervention, with repeated process of development and testing. This process resulted in six prototypes which aim to promote home-based exercise and facilitate physical activity engagement of community-dwelling stroke survivors and were used in a feasibility study. Further research with a larger sample of stroke survivors and a more robust design is needed to substantiate these results.


Author(s):  
Esther García-Esquinas ◽  
Rosario Ortolá ◽  
Iago Gine-Vázquez ◽  
José A. Carnicero ◽  
Asier Mañas ◽  
...  

We used data from 3041 participants in four cohorts of community-dwelling individuals aged ≥65 years in Spain collected through a pre-pandemic face-to-face interview and a telephone interview conducted between weeks 7 to 15 after the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown. On average, the confinement was not associated with a deterioration in lifestyle risk factors (smoking, alcohol intake, diet, or weight), except for a decreased physical activity and increased sedentary time, which reversed with the end of confinement. However, chronic pain worsened, and moderate declines in mental health, that did not seem to reverse after restrictions were lifted, were observed. Males, older adults with greater social isolation or greater feelings of loneliness, those with poorer housing conditions, as well as those with a higher prevalence of chronic morbidities were at increased risk of developing unhealthier lifestyles or mental health declines with confinement. On the other hand, previously having a greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet and doing more physical activity protected older adults from developing unhealthier lifestyles with confinement. If another lockdown were imposed during this or future pandemics, public health programs should specially address the needs of older individuals with male sex, greater social isolation, sub-optimal housing conditions, and chronic morbidities because of their greater vulnerability to the enacted movement restrictions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 194-195
Author(s):  
Kaiyuan Hua ◽  
Sheng Luo ◽  
Katherine Hall ◽  
Miriam Morey ◽  
Harvey Cohen

Abstract Background. Functional decline in conjunction with low levels of physical activity has implications for health risks in older adults. Previous studies have examined the associations between accelerometry-derived activity and physical function, but most of these studies reduced these data into average means of total daily physical activity (e.g., daily step counts). A new method of analysis “functional data analysis” provides more in-depth capability using minute-level accelerometer data. Methods. A secondary analysis of community-dwelling adults ages 30 to 90+ residing in southwest region of North Carolina from the Physical Performance across the Lifespan (PALS) study. PALS assessments were completed in-person at baseline and one-week of accelerometry. Final analysis includes 669 observations at baseline with minute-level accelerometer data from 7:00 to 23:00, after removing non-wear time. A novel scalar-on-function regression analysis was used to explore the associations between baseline physical activity features (minute-by-minute vector magnitude generated from accelerometer) and baseline physical function (gait speed, single leg stance, chair stands, and 6-minute walk test) with control for baseline age, sex, race and body mass index. Results. The functional regressions were significant for specific times of day indicating increased physical activity associated with increased physical function around 8:00, 9:30 and 15:30-17:00 for rapid gait speed; 9:00-10:30 and 15:00-16:30 for normal gait speed; 9:00-10:30 for single leg stance; 9:30-11:30 and 15:00-18:00 for chair stands; 9:00-11:30 and 15:00-18:30 for 6-minute walk. Conclusion. This method of functional data analysis provides news insights into the relationship between minute-by-minute daily activity and health.


2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark W. Swanson ◽  
Eric Bodner ◽  
Patricia Sawyer ◽  
Richard M. Allman

Little is known about the effect of reduced vision on physical activity in older adults. This study evaluates the association of visual acuity level, self-reported vision, and ocular disease conditions with leisure-time physical activity and calculated caloric expenditure. A cross-sectional study of 911 subjects 65 yr and older from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Study of Aging (SOA) cohort was conducted evaluating the association of vision-related variables to weekly kilocalorie expenditure calculated from the 17-item Leisure Time Physical Activity Questionnaire. Ordinal logistic regression was used to evaluate possible associations while controlling for potential confounders. In multivariate analyses, each lower step in visual acuity below 20/50 was significantly associated with reduced odds of having a higher level of physical activity, OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.67, 0.97. Reduced visual acuity appears to be independently associated with lower levels of physical activity among community-dwelling adults.


2021 ◽  
pp. 105477382110339
Author(s):  
Bei Li ◽  
Xiuxiu Huang ◽  
Chenchen Meng ◽  
Qiaoqin Wan ◽  
Yongan Sun

Dementia is prevalent in worldwide, and increases the care burden and potential costs. Physical activity (PA) has been increasingly shown to be beneficial for them. This was a cross-sectional observational study aiming to investigate the status of PA among community-dwelling older adults with dementia in Beijing or Hangzhou, China, and verify the relationships between neuropsychiatric symptoms, activities of daily living (ADL), caregivers’ fear of patients’ falling and their PA using a path analysis approach. The level of PA among 216 included people with dementia was low. PA was related to the neuropsychiatric symptoms, with ADL and caregivers’ fear of patients’ falling have mediation roles. The findings indicated that person-centered strategies related to the management of these symptoms might be helpful to improve ADL, relieve caregivers’ concerns about them falling and consequently foster positive participation in PA.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 1877
Author(s):  
Rieke Trumpf ◽  
Wiebren Zijlstra ◽  
Peter Haussermann ◽  
Tim Fleiner

Applicable and accurate assessment methods are required for a clinically relevant quantification of habitual physical activity (PA) levels and sedentariness in older adults. The aim of this study is to compare habitual PA and sedentariness, as assessed with (1) a wrist-worn actigraph, (2) a hybrid motion sensor attached to the lower back, and (3) a self-estimation based on a questionnaire. Over the course of one week, PA of 58 community-dwelling subjectively healthy older adults was recorded. The results indicate that actigraphy overestimates the PA levels in older adults, whereas sedentariness is underestimated when compared to the hybrid motion sensor approach. Significantly longer durations (hh:mm/day) for all PA intensities were assessed with the actigraph (light: 04:19; moderate to vigorous: 05:08) when compared to the durations (hh:mm/day) that were assessed with the hybrid motion sensor (light: 01:24; moderate to vigorous: 02:21) and the self-estimated durations (hh:mm/day) (light: 02:33; moderate to vigorous: 03:04). Actigraphy-assessed durations of sedentariness (14:32 hh:mm/day) were significantly shorter when compared to the durations assessed with the hybrid motion sensor (20:15 hh:mm/day). Self-estimated duration of light intensity was significantly shorter when compared to the results of the hybrid motion sensor. The results of the present study highlight the importance of an accurate quantification of habitual PA levels and sedentariness in older adults. The use of hybrid motion sensors can offer important insights into the PA levels and PA types (e.g., sitting, lying) and it can increase the knowledge about mobility-related PA and patterns of sedentariness, while actigraphy appears to be not recommendable for this purpose.


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