Exercise and Technology to Reduce Risk in a Rural Population With Metabolic Syndrome

October 21, 2013 updated by: Rob Petrella, Lawson Health Research Institute

A Lifestyle Intervention Supported by Mobile Health Technologies to Improve the Cardiometabolic Risk Profile of Individuals at Risk for Cardiovascular Disease and Type 2 Diabetes.

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death among Canadians. In those with diabetes, cardiovascular complications are responsible for more than 70% of deaths. While there is much interest in identifying and treating risk factors, the exact biological mechanisms, their measurement and optimal ways to prevent and manage them are poorly understood.

Physical activity and regular exercise can prevent diabetes and effectively manage risk factors, but most Canadians do not exercise enough to beneficially manage risk. Tailored exercise prescribed by a family physician has shown promise as a means to increase fitness and reduce risk, but optimal implementation practices remain unknown - especially in rural and remote communities with reduced access to healthcare. Mobile health technologies have proved to be a beneficial tool to achieve blood pressure and blood glucose control in patients with diabetes. These technologies may address the limited access to health interventions in rural and remote regions. However, the potential as a tool to support exercise-based prevention activities unknown.

Therefore, this study was undertaken to investigate the effects of a tailored exercise prescription alone or supported by mobile health technologies to improve cardiovascular risk factors in rural community-dwelling adults at risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

Adults with cardiovascular risk factors were recruited from rural communities and randomized to either: 1) an intervention group receiving an exercise prescription and devices for monitoring of risk factors with a smartphone data portal equipped with a mobile health application; or 2) an active control group receiving only an exercise prescription.

It was hypothesized that the intervention group would reduce their risk to a greater extent than the active control group following 12 weeks, and that these improvements would be better maintained in the intervention group at 24 and 52 weeks compared to the active control group.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

149

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Ontario
      • Seaforth, Ontario, Canada, N0K 1W0
        • Gateway Rural Health Research Institute

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 70 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • aged 18-70 years
  • two or more metabolic syndrome risk factors according to National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III criteria: waist circumference ≥ 88 cm (women) or ≥ 102 cm (men); systolic blood pressure ≥ 135 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 85 mmHg; fasting plasma glucose ≥ 6.1 mmol/L; triglycerides ≥ 1.7 mmol/L; and high density lipoprotein cholesterol ≤ 1.29 mmol/L (women) or ≤ 1.02 mmol/L (men)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • systolic blood pressure > 180 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure > 110mmHg
  • type 1 diabetes
  • history of myocardial infarction, angioplasty, coronary artery bypass or cerebrovascular ischemia/stroke
  • symptomatic congestive heart failure
  • atrial flutter
  • unstable angina
  • unstable pulmonary disease
  • use of medications known to affect heart rate
  • second or third degree heart block
  • history of alcoholism, drug abuse or other emotional cognitive or psychiatric problems
  • pacemaker
  • unstable metabolic disease and orthopedic or rheumatologic problems that could impair the ability to exercise

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Exercise Prescription + Mobile Health
Received a tailored exercise prescription and mobile health technology kit to track blood pressure, blood glucose, physical activity and body weight.
Behavioral: Mobile Health
Participants monitored their blood pressure 3x per week, blood glucose 1x per week, pedometer steps daily and body weight monthly. Measures from devices were transferred or inputted to a smartphone data portal. Planned exercise was logged electronically on the smartphone.
Behavioral: Exercise Prescription
An exercise program was prescribed tailored to participant fitness level (using the Step Test Exercise Prescription (STEP-TM) protocol). Briefly, STEP-TM required participants to step up and down a set of 2 steps 20 times at a comfortable pace. A predictive equation including post-test heart rate, time to complete test, age, body weight and sex was used to calculate fitness. An exercise program was prescribed including aerobic exercise most days of the week for 30-60 minutes in duration at a target heart rate tailored to fitness level. Light resistance training was also prescribed 2-4 times per week.
Active Comparator: Exercise Prescription
Received a tailored exercise prescription only.
Behavioral: Exercise Prescription
An exercise program was prescribed tailored to participant fitness level (using the Step Test Exercise Prescription (STEP-TM) protocol). Briefly, STEP-TM required participants to step up and down a set of 2 steps 20 times at a comfortable pace. A predictive equation including post-test heart rate, time to complete test, age, body weight and sex was used to calculate fitness. An exercise program was prescribed including aerobic exercise most days of the week for 30-60 minutes in duration at a target heart rate tailored to fitness level. Light resistance training was also prescribed 2-4 times per week.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Systolic Blood Pressure
Time Frame: 12 weeks
12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Lawson Health Research Institute

Collaborators

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Canadian Diabetes Association
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Robert J Petrella, MD, PhD, Lawson Health Research Institute

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

November 1, 2009

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2011

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 12, 2013

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 12, 2013

First Posted (Estimate)

September 17, 2013

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

October 22, 2013

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 21, 2013

Last Verified

October 1, 2013

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 15828

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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