Healthy Living Programme for Older Adults (HLP)

Healthy Living Programme (HLP): Diet, Drug and Fall Prevention for Community-dwelling Frail Older Adults

Malnutrition, risk of falls and medication incidents are commonly faced by the older adults. This study aimed to provide health education to community-dwelling older adults and to assess the effectiveness of a Healthy Living Program (HLP) to older adults in terms of fall prevention, drug management and healthy eating habits.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Frail Older Adults
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Healthy Living Programme

Detailed Description

This was a single group pre-post trial. Participants aged 60 or above were recruited from the community elderly centres. A 6-week HLP, which included one 45 minutes weekly session, was offered to the participants.

122 participants were recruited. This study shows that the 6-week HLP has a potential to improve the physical well-being of the participants, and to increase their knowledge in diet, drug management and fall prevention.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 122
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 60 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• able to communicate and understand Cantonese
• > 1 in frailty score
• members of the Pentecostal Church of Hong Kong

Exclusion Criteria:

• nil

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: PREVENTION
• Allocation: NA
• Interventional Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Masking: NONE

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

EXPERIMENTAL: Healthy Living Programme; 6 weeks program, with 45 minutes weekly session over 6 weeks.Week 1 & 2 focused on healthy eating habits including food pyramid, balanced diet for the elderly, food labels, healthy snacks and healthy eating out. Week 3 & 4 were about fall prevention, which included risk factors and complications of fall among older adults, preventive measures, strengthening exercises and aerobic dance. Week 5 & 6 focused on drug management, such as knowledge on commonly used drugs, drug storage, use of analgesics and non-pharmacological pain relief strategies.

Behavioral: Healthy Living Programme; A 6-week Healthy Living Program (HLP) was developed and implemented for all the participants. There was one 45 minutes weekly session over 6 week. Week 1 & 2 focused on healthy eating habits including food pyramid, balanced diet for the elderly, food labels, healthy snacks and healthy eating out. Week 3 & 4 were about fall prevention, which included risk factors and complications of fall among older adults, preventive measures, strengthening exercises and aerobic dance. Week 5 & 6 focused on drug management, such as knowledge on commonly used drugs, drug storage, use of analgesics and non-pharmacological pain relief strategies. Interactive activities such as games, puzzles and question & answer session were included in the group education.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in subjective happiness level	Measured by Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS), which consisted of 4 statements answered on a 7-point Likert scale. Scores for each statement range from 1 to 7 and the scores from the four statements were added, thus the possible range of scores on the SHS is 4 to 28. Higher scores reflect higher levels of subjective happiness.	Baseline, Week 6

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in frailty status	Measured by the FRAIL scale, which includes five items: fatigue, resistance, ambulation, illness, and loss of weight. The FRAIL scale ranges from 0-5, with a score of 0 regards as normal, 1-2 as pre-frail and 3-5 as frail.	Baseline, Week 6
Change in pain intensity	Measured using the numerical rating scale, to assess the presence and intensity of pain among participants, which was presented with 0 referring to no pain and 10 referring to the worst pain imaginable	Baseline, Week 6
Change in Generalized pain self-efficacy beliefs	Measured by the Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire. It consists of 10 statements, and participants were asked to rate their confidence in performing 10 activities or tasks despite experiencing pain, on a 7-point scale.	Baseline, Week 6
Change in functional mobility	Measured by Timed Up and Go Test. The participants were required to walk a distance of three meters, turn, walk back to the chair and sit down.	Baseline, Week 6
Change in hand grip strength	Measured using a dynamometer. Participants were seated with arms by the trunk, the elbow flexed to 90 and in a neutral position, and the wrist in slight extension. Participants were told to squeeze the dynamometer as hard as they could	Baseline, Week 6
Change in knowledge in healthy eating habits	Measured by self-developed questionnaire. Range of score is 0-12, with higher score indicates having more knowledge.	Baseline, Week 6
Change in knowledge in drug management	Measured by self-developed questionnaire. Range of score is 0-10, with higher score indicates having more knowledge.	Baseline, Week 6
Change in knowledge in fall prevention	Measured by self-developed questionnaire. Range of score is 0-5, with higher score indicates having more knowledge.	Baseline, Week 6

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• Collaborators: Pentecostal Church of Hong Kong
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Mimi Mun Yee Tse, PhD, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: December 1, 2014
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): March 1, 2016
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): June 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 8, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 13, 2016
• First Posted (ESTIMATE): September 16, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ESTIMATE): September 16, 2016
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 13, 2016
• Last Verified: September 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: H-ZJJY

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO