Stand if You Can: A Standing Intervention in Long Term Care

Stand if You Can- A Randomized Control Trial

It is currently unknown if reducing sitting time, an activity that is highly prevalent in frail older adults living in long term care (LTC) facilities, is associated with an improvement in physical capacity such as walking speed. Simple tasks such as walking speed is associated with important outcomes for residents in LTC such as autonomy and hospitalization. The investigators hypothesize that standing an additional 100 minutes per week for 5 months will result in a clinically meaningful improvement in walking speed (0.1m/sec) in LTC residents compared to residents receiving a sitting social activity.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Frailty; Physical Disability; Sedentary Behavior
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Standing

Detailed Description

LTC facilities from Moncton and Fredericton will be recruited, with half of the LTC facilities randomized as the intervention and half as the control group. The investigators are aiming to enrol half of the LTC in Fredericton and half in Moncton. A total of 88 residents (44 in the control group, 44 in the intervention group) will be enrolled in the program.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 97
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • New Brunswick
    • Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, E3B 2J2
      • Pine Grove Nursing Home

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Resident at one of the selected LTC facilities;
• Able to provide consent or have a power of attorney agree on behalf of a resident to participate in the study;
• Able to walk for ten meters, with or without a walking aid; The main outcome is walking speed performed for a distance of 10 meters. Therefore, we want everyone who participates in the study to be able to complete the test at baseline. This way we can answer the main research question, while adhering to our sample size calculation.

Exclusion Criteria:

• If Identified by staff at the facility as too high risk for falling by participating in the intervention.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Standing and Social Intervention; Participants be exposed to an additional 100 minutes of standing per week. Participants will do this by standing for 20 minutes Monday through Friday.	Behavioral: Standing; Standing for an additional 100 minutes per week; 20 minutes Monday-Friday
No Intervention: Control Group; Control group will receive social visits, but no exposure to standing

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in Walking Speed	Measured by the 10m walking speed test	Pre and post intervention testing

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Balance	Measured by a portable device (Wii Balance board), which has sensors that detects sway .	Pre and post testing (following the 5 month intervention). Data was collected but investigators are still analyzing findings.
Change in Leg Strength	Using hand-held dynamometer to quantify leg strength through knee extension	Pre-Post Testing (following the 5 month intervention)
Change Lower Limb Power	Using the 30second sit-stand test following senior fitness test protocol	Pre-Post Testing (following the 5 month intervention)
Change in Anxiety Symptoms	The Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (Scale 0-20). A low score means a better outcome.	Pre-Post Testing (following the 5 month intervention)
Depression	Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form (0-15 scale). Lower score is better outcome.	Pre-Post Testing (following the 5 month intervention)
Loneliness	Loneliness was measured using the UCLA Loneliness Scale (20-80). A low score indicates a better outcome	Pre-Post Testing (following the 5 month intervention)
Fall Efficacy	Falls Efficacy Scale-International Questionnaire (16-64 scale). Low score indicates a better score	Pre-Post Testing (following the 5 month intervention)
Rate of Falls	Falls, injuries due to falls and hospitalization will be collected at 3 timepoints	The number of falls will be collected from three timeframes: 1. Between 6 months prior to and the start of program 2. the duration of the program (5 months) 3. From the end of the program to 6 months follow up. Data is still being analyzed at this time.
Metabolic Profile - Triglycerides	Capillary blood analyzed with a cardiochek device. Blood collected via a finger prick and analyzed with a cardiochek device. Note that Total Cholesterol, HDL, Triglycerides, LDL and Glucose were all measured using the cardiochek device.	Pre-Post Testing (before and following the 5 month intervention).
Social Behaviours	Semi-structured interviews with residents (participants and non-participants), family members and staff will be administered at the end of the study	Pre-Post Testing (following the 5-month intervention). Data has been collected, but is still being analyzed
Metabolic Profile - High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol	High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol was analyzed using the CardioChek Professional Analyzer system (PTS Diagnostics, Whitestown, Indiana, USA). A finger prick was conducted using a single use lancet and approximately 60 µL of whole blood was collected for this test.	Pre and post testing (before and after the 5-month intervention)
Metabolic Profile - Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol	Low-density lipoprotein was assessed using a CardioChek Professional Analyzer system (PTS Diagnostics, Whitestown, Indiana, USA).	Pre-Post intervention (before and after 5-month intervention)
Metabolic Profile - Blood Glucose	Fasted blood glucose was analyzed using a CardioChek Professional Analyzer system (PTS Diagnostics, Whitestown, Indiana, USA).	Pre-Post Intervention (before and after 5-month intervention)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of New Brunswick
• Collaborators: Horizon Health Network; St. Thomas University; Universite de Moncton; Canadian Frailty Network

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 1, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): January 23, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): July 15, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 20, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 3, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): January 8, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 27, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 31, 2023
• Last Verified: May 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Physical Function; Long Term Care
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pathologic Processes; Frailty
• Other Study ID Numbers: CAT2018-15

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

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

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No