The iCARE Study: Education Modules for Fracture Prevention (iCARE)

The iCARE Study: An Integrated Collection of Education Modules on Fall and Fracture Prevention for Healthcare Providers

A large proportion of older adults living in long term care homes are frail and have osteoporosis. With age, there is a gradual and progressive decline in bone quality and quantity and an increase in frailty, which is associated with increased fracture risk. Additionally, fractures pose a significant burden to the health and quality of life of long term care residents and contribute to high healthcare costs. Despite the high prevalence of osteoporosis, falls, and fractures in long term care, the management of osteoporosis is not optimal among long term care residents at risk of fracture. The aim of this study is to co-design a service provision (i.e., PREVENT - Person-centred Routine Fracture PreEVENTion) with healthcare providers in long term care and to determine the feasibility of implementing PREVENT in long term care settings.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Frailty; Osteoporosis; Fracture; Chronic Conditions, Multiple
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: PREVENT Program

Detailed Description

Fractures pose a significant burden on health, quality of life, and mortality of older adults in long term care (LTC) and contribute to high health care costs. PREVENT (Person-centred Routine Fracture PreEVENTion) is a scalable model for delivering routine assessments and interventions on diet and supplements, multifactorial fall and fracture prevention strategies, and medications to long term care teams to treat residents at high risk of fracture. The purpose of the iCARE study is to create a fall and fracture educational program (i.e., PREVENT) for LTC healthcare providers to deliver routine assessments for the management and treatment of osteoporosis. The benefit of such a guide may help to reduce the devastating impact of fractures in older adults residing in LTC homes. The aim of this pilot study is to: 1) determine feasibility and 2) adaptations through facilitators and barriers. Before a larger trial can be implemented to determine the effectiveness of the PREVENT Program in practice, the iCARE study seeks to determine the feasibility of implementing PREVENT in practice and identify strategies to tailor the program to the individual long term care home and care team through design thinking solutions.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 40

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Ontario
    • Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, N3T 5M1
      • Geras Centre for Aging Research

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 14 years to 96 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Care planning in long term care is a collaborative effort between the resident, the long term care healthcare provider, and the resident's family/caregiver. An internal champion will be identified to represent several long term care homes and who will help identify the five Professional Advisory Committees care teams who are the end-users of the PREVENT program. The Professional Advisory Committee may consist of a Director of Care/Nursing Director, Medical Director, Clinical Consultant Pharmacist, and other participating members who may include dietitians, rehabilitation staff, nurses, physicians, and personal support workers.

Description

Organizational Level Inclusion Criteria:

Five long LTC homes in Ontario that

• Have a minimum of 70 residents
• Are publicly owned and private for-profit and private not-for-profit homes in both urban and rural sites

Individual Level Inclusion Criteria:

• At least one internal champion
• Five Professional Advisory Committee (PAC) care teams from five long term care homes in Ontario that provide osteoporosis care to residents.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Observational Models: Cohort
• Time Perspectives: Prospective

Number of groups / cohorts

3

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Internal Champion & LTC Leadership Team #1 from Site #1; The internal champion and LTC leadership team of each LTC home will attend two virtual focus group sessions to help co-design the PREVENT Program educational material. The internal champion will receive training on how to deliver the PREVENT program to the leadership team. The internal champion/pharmacist/data analyst will receive training on how to develop an audit and feedback report on fall and fracture management. All participants will attend an educational meeting facilitated by the internal champion who will use a combination of didactic and interactive activities. After the educational meeting, the leadership team will complete an action and care planning report for each LTC resident at high risk of fracture. Lastly, all participants will attend two virtual focus group sessions to discuss the successes and challenges of implementing the PREVENT program in practice.	Behavioral: PREVENT Program; PREVENT (Person-centred Routine Fracture PreEVENTion) is a scalable model for delivering routine assessments and interventions on diet and supplements, multifactorial fall and fracture prevention strategies, and medications to long term care teams to treat residents at high risk of fracture.
Internal Champion & LTC Leadership Team #2 from Site #2; The internal champion and LTC leadership team of each LTC home will attend two virtual focus group sessions to help co-design the PREVENT Program educational material. The internal champion will receive training on how to deliver the PREVENT program to the leadership team. The internal champion/pharmacist/data analyst will receive training on how to develop an audit and feedback report on fall and fracture management. All participants will attend an educational meeting facilitated by the internal champion who will use a combination of didactic and interactive activities. After the educational meeting, the leadership team will complete an action and care planning report for each LTC resident at high risk of fracture. Lastly, all participants will attend two virtual focus group sessions to discuss the successes and challenges of implementing the PREVENT program in practice.	Behavioral: PREVENT Program; PREVENT (Person-centred Routine Fracture PreEVENTion) is a scalable model for delivering routine assessments and interventions on diet and supplements, multifactorial fall and fracture prevention strategies, and medications to long term care teams to treat residents at high risk of fracture.
Internal Champion & LTC Leadership Team #3 from Site #3; The internal champion and LTC leadership team of each LTC home will attend two virtual focus group sessions to help co-design the PREVENT Program educational material. The internal champion will receive training on how to deliver the PREVENT program to the leadership team. The internal champion/pharmacist/data analyst will receive training on how to develop an audit and feedback report on fall and fracture management. All participants will attend an educational meeting facilitated by the internal champion who will use a combination of didactic and interactive activities. After the educational meeting, the leadership team will complete an action and care planning report for each LTC resident at high risk of fracture. Lastly, all participants will attend two virtual focus group sessions to discuss the successes and challenges of implementing the PREVENT program in practice.	Behavioral: PREVENT Program; PREVENT (Person-centred Routine Fracture PreEVENTion) is a scalable model for delivering routine assessments and interventions on diet and supplements, multifactorial fall and fracture prevention strategies, and medications to long term care teams to treat residents at high risk of fracture.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Feasibility - Recruitment Rate	Number of long term care homes (LTCs) in Ontario recruited within two months. Criteria for success: recruit 5 LTC homes in Ontario within 2 months	2 months
Feasibility - LTC home readiness and capacity	Determine long term care home readiness and capacity to participate in the iCARE study based on a Readiness Checklist Survey. Criteria for success: at least 75% of homes approached are ready and have the capacity to participate in the study	1 month
Feasibility - Length of time to complete PREVENT Program	Length of time for participants to implement the PREVENT Program	4 months
Feasibility - Logistics of linking data (Yes/No format)	Determine the logistics of linking MDS 2.0 data with pharmaceutical database data at the resident level. This will be assessed by a "yes" or "no" (i.e., Feasible - Yes vs. Feasible - No)	4 months
Fidelity of delivering the PREVENT program	Determine the fidelity of delivering the PREVENT program. Criteria for success: ≥ 80% on the fidelity checklist.	4-6 months
Feasibility - Number of Questions Completed	The number of questions answered by the participants for each questionnaire. Criteria for success is 80% of questions are completed.	4 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in Prescribing Habits	To determine if appropriate prescribing habits change after the educational session. The criteria for success is a 10% improvement in prescribing habits. This will be measured by the number of prescriptions per number of residents at high risk of fracture pre- vs. post-intervention.	4-6 months
Adaptations to PREVENT Program	To determine adaptations to the PREVENT program by facilitating two 1.5-hour focus group sessions (semi-structured interviews) with the leadership team to 1) discuss facilitators of and barriers to implementing the PREVENT program and 2) make necessary changes to the PREVENT program/educational material catered to the individual LTC home.	4-6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: McMaster University
• Collaborators: Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Alexandra Papaioannou, MD, MSc, FRCP(c), FACP, McMaster University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 30, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 15, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): August 15, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 28, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 30, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): July 6, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): July 1, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 27, 2025
• Last Verified: December 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Osteoporosis; Education; Frailty; Knowledge Translation; Long Term Care; Knowledge Mobilization; Service Provision; Fracture Prevention
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Bone Diseases; Musculoskeletal Diseases; Wounds and Injuries; Pathologic Processes; Disease Attributes; Metabolic Diseases; Bone Diseases, Metabolic; Frailty; Multiple Chronic Conditions; Fractures, Bone; Osteoporosis; Chronic Disease
• Other Study ID Numbers: 14463

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