Virtual Trainer System (3rd Version) for Physical Activity Promotion in Middle-aged Hong Kong Adults

Development and Dissemination of an Online Exercise and Health Promotion Program for Hong Kong Middle-aged Chinese: The Virtual Trainer System 3rd Version

Practicing a habitual physical activity is important for health. A Virtual Trainer (VT) online system was developed in 2006 (1st version) and improved in 2010 (2nd version) for encouraging an active lifestyle. This project intends to further improve the VT (3rd version) which incorporates more effective psychological and e-health theories, and disseminate it to Hong Kong middle-aged adults.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Sedentary Lifestyle
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Follow Your Virtual Trainer (FYVT) program; Other: Daily PA recommendation & healthy lifestyle suggestions

Detailed Description

Hong Kong is a highly urbanized city that many people work long hours daily and over the week, especially for those middle-aged adults. The limited time and lack of professional exercise instruction are always the barriers for them to participate in physical activity (PA). With the advances in information technology (IT), the knowledge of PA can be rapidly disseminated through the Internet and smartphone. We design an IT- instruction based lifestyle intervention program, with the purpose to improve PA level and health status in a sample of middle-aged Hong Kong adults. A two-arm parallel individual level randomized controlled trial (RCT) named "Follow Your Virtual Trainer (FYVT)" will be conducted among 200 healthy and sedentary Chinese adults aged from 40 to 65 years. The participants will be randomly allocated into intervention group or control group. Those in intervention group will under the instruction of a web-based computer software termed "Virtual Trainer", which interact with their smartphone apps, to conduct a 3-month self-planned PA training program. A serious of online video seminars with healthy lifestyle themes will be released to the participants biweekly among 3 months. After that, 6 months observation will be followed. Those in control group will only receive a written advice of standard PA recommendation, and the textual content of the seminars. The assessments will be implemented at baseline, 3, 6, and 9 month. Primary outcome is PA measured by accelerometer and International Physical Activity Questionnaire; the second outcomes include cardio-respiratory fitness, resting energy expenditure, anthropometrics, body composition, blood pressure, health-related quality of life, sleep quality and quantity, fatigue, behavior mediators, and maintenance of PA.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 261
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Hong Kong
  • Hong Kong, Hong Kong
    • The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 40 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• aged 40 to 65 years
• able to understand Cantonese and read Chinese
• self-reported inactivity (no habitual exercise experience for at least 6 months)
• the baseline resting energy expenditure (REE) is less than 1.05 kcal•min-1 for men and 0.85 kcal•min-1 for women
• reachable by telephone
• have basic computer skills
• have smartphone and always surf internet (at least 4 times per week)
• will not leave Hong Kong for a long time (longer than 2 months) during the study period

Exclusion Criteria:

• self-reported history of cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, neurological disorder, musculo-skeletal disorder, and osteoarthritis
• receiving medically prescribed diet or PA intervention
• blood pressure ≥ 160/100 mmHg
• using of medication that may influence exercise performance
• for women, currently pregnant or plan to become pregnant in the next 1 years, and those receiving hormonal therapy

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Physical activity promotion I; Participants in this group attended the "VT3" program (with Automatic HR detection)	Behavioral: Follow Your Virtual Trainer (FYVT) program; Participants in intervention group will under the instruction of a web-based computer software termed "Virtual Trainer", which interact with their smartphone apps, to conduct a 3-month self-planned PA training program. A serious of online video seminars related to healthy lifestyle advice will be released to the participants among 3 months. After that, 6 months observation will be followed.
Experimental: Physical activity promotion II; Participants in this group attended the "VT2" program (self PA report)	Behavioral: Follow Your Virtual Trainer (FYVT) program; Participants in intervention group will under the instruction of a web-based computer software termed "Virtual Trainer", which interact with their smartphone apps, to conduct a 3-month self-planned PA training program. A serious of online video seminars related to healthy lifestyle advice will be released to the participants among 3 months. After that, 6 months observation will be followed.
Placebo Comparator: Control; Participants in this group did not receive any VT treatment, and live as usual.	Other: Daily PA recommendation & healthy lifestyle suggestions; A written advice of daily PA recommendation, and the textual content of the healthy lifestyle seminars will be provided to the participants.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Changes of physical activity level as measures by accelerometer and International Physical Activity Questionnaire	Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes of cardio-respiratory fitness as measured by the symptom limited maximal treadmill exercise test using the metabolic analyzer (Cosmed K4b2, Italy)	The maximal oxygen intake (VO2 max in ml•min-1•kg-1) is used as indicator of cardio-respiratory fitness in our study.	Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months
Changes of resting VO2 (ml•min-1•kg-1) as measured by the metabolic analyzer (Cosmed K4b2, Italy)		Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months
Changes of resting kilocalorie expenditure (KCal in KCal•min-1) as measured by the metabolic analyzer (Cosmed K4b2, Italy)		Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months
Changes of resting heart rate (HR in beats•min-1) as measured by heart rate monitor		Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months
Changes of body weight as measured by weighting scale		Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months
Changes of body mass index (BMI) as measured by the calculation of weight (kg) divided by the square of height (cm)		Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months
Changes of waist circumference as measured by standardized tape measure		Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months
Changes of hip circumference as measured by standardized tape measure		Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months
Changes of body fat percentage as measured by the bioelectrical impedance analysis (Tanita, BC 581, Japan)		Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months
Changes of body mass as measured by the bioelectrical impedance analysis (Tanita, BC 581, Japan)		Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months
Changes of waist hip ratio (WHR) as measured by the calculation of dividing the waist circumference (cm) by the hip circumference (cm)		Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months
Changes of blood pressure as measured by the mercury sphygmomanometer		Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months
Changes of health-related quality of life as measured by the SF-36		Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months
Changes of sleep quality as measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index		Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months
Changes of sleep quantity as measured by a 7-day Daily Sleep Log		Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months
Changes of self-perceived fatigue as measured by the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS)-fatigue		Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months
Maintenance of physical activity as measured a self-administered questionnaire	A self-administered questionnaire will be given to the participants at 3 and 6 months to evaluate their maintenance of physical activity.	Measures will be done at two time points: 6 months and 9 months
Behavior mediators as measured by a self-administered questionnaire	The possible behavior mediators will be examined by a self-administered questionnaire that bases on Ajzen's guideline for developing a Theory of Planned Behavior questionnaire. We will structure these mediator variables according to attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control, to understand their intention to active participation in physical activities.	Measures will be done at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Chinese University of Hong Kong

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Hui SS, Xie YJ, Kwok RC, Tam EW, Mak WWS, Mo PK. Follow Your Virtual Trainer (FYVT): a randomised controlled trial protocol of IT-based lifestyle intervention programme to promote physical activity and health among middle-aged Hong Kong Chinese. BMJ Open. 2018 Feb 3;8(2):e017908. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017908.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: October 1, 2015
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 30, 2017
• Study Completion (Actual): October 30, 2017

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 17, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 17, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): September 18, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 25, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 23, 2019
• Last Verified: July 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Health promotion; Physical activity; Information technology; Middle-aged
• Other Study ID Numbers: KPF14ICF14