Daily Activity Study of Health: Increasing Physical Activity in Aging (DASH)

February 27, 2024 updated by: Maiya Geddes, Northeastern University

Changing and Understanding Motivation to Increase Physical Activity Among Sedentary Older Adults

In this six-week behavioral intervention, sedentary older adults will receive daily health messaging via their smart phone to better understand their daily activities and emotions. Participants undergo structural and functional brain imaging before and after the intervention along with measures of their behavioral, emotional and thinking functions.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This project will obtain data on the effects of a six week intervention designed to increase subjects' motivation to increase their physical activity. Subjects will be randomized into two different conditions to examine the efficacy of self-affirmation + positive messaging versus a control group that receives negative messaging only on changes in physical activity.

We will also examine whether any differential physical activity or structured exercise engendered in the two groups is maintained at 3 months post-intervention.

Secondary outcome measures will include a battery of cognitive, psychosocial, and neuroimaging measures that are designed to explicate the mechanisms that underlie motivation effects for physical activity in sedentary older adults.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

40

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

  • United States
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02120
        • Northeastern University

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

60 years to 95 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age range 60-95
  • Not exercising more than 150 minutes of moderate/vigorous intensity per week AND sitting more than 8 hours per day
  • No contraindications to MRI (if opting for MRI)
  • Being able to speak English fluently
  • Body Mass Index (BMI) between 20 and 40
  • Normal or corrected-normal vision based on the minimal 20/20 standard
  • Ambulatory without severe pain or the assistance of walking devices
  • No diagnosis of a neurological disease
  • Regular access to a computer with internet or smartphone

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Primary care physician does not approve additional physical activity
  • Inability to ambulate without assistive device
  • Any unstable medical condition
  • Current diagnosis of a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) Axis I or II disorder including Major Depression
  • History of major psychiatric illness including schizophrenia (not including general anxiety disorder or depression)
  • Current treatment for cancer - except non-melanoma skin
  • Neurological condition (multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, dementia, mild cognitive impairment) or brain injury (traumatic or stroke)
  • Current alcohol or substance abuse
  • Current treatment for congestive heart failure, angina, uncontrolled arrhythmia, deep vein thrombosis or other cardiovascular event
  • Myocardial infarction, coronary artery bypass grafting, angioplasty or other cardiac condition in the past year
  • Not passing the Telephone Interview of Cognitive Status (TICS) as normal
  • Use of any anti-psychotic, anti-depressant, anti-anxiety, and attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD) medications.

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: Basic Science
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention
Brain MRI and Motivational Behavioral Intervention
Behavioral: Motivational MRI and Behavioral Intervention
Motivational messaging delivered during a functional brain MRI scan and with daily messaging
Active Comparator: Active control
Brain MRI and Control Behavioral Intervention
Behavioral: Control MRI and Behavioral Intervention
Control messaging delivered during a functional brain MRI scan and with daily messaging

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Sedentary Behavior (Average Hour/Day)
Time Frame: Baseline; 6-week
This metric quantifies the change in the average amount of time spent sedentary each day in hours, from the baseline period to the 6-week follow-up period. It is a marker of time spent inactive.
Baseline; 6-week

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity
Time Frame: Baseline; 6-week
This measure focuses on the change in average moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) daily minutes after the intervention compared to the pre-intervention average MVPA baseline.
Baseline; 6-week

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Northeastern University

Collaborators

National Institute on Aging (NIA)

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 (Actual)

November 13, 2020

Primary Completion (Actual)

October 1, 2022

Study Completion (Actual)

September 30, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 26, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 17, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

March 19, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

February 29, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 27, 2024

Last Verified

February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 19-06-05
  • P30AG048785 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

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

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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