Improving the Mobility of Transportation Disadvantaged Older Adults

April 12, 2023 updated by: Kathy Lee, The University of Texas at Arlington

Improving the Mobility of Transportation Disadvantaged Older Adults A Community-Based Intervention for the Hispanic/Latino Population

The primary objective of the research was to improve mobility for transportation-disadvantaged older adults by expanding the scope of the existing Healthy Buddy Program, to accommodate an aging Spanish-speaking population in the U.S.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The research identified barriers and opportunities to improve Hispanic/Latino older adult access to community-based transportation and health resources. It was conducted with the existing Healthy Buddy model, which pairs older adults with college students who are trained to help them identify relevant transportation and health resources, while accommodating the unique needs of this transportation-disadvantaged population. The research team reevaluated the potential effectiveness of a Spanish-language accessible Healthy Buddy program model for increasing the self-efficacy and quality of life among Hispanic/Latino older adults. The team recruited bilingual (English-Spanish-speaking) students from multidisciplinary backgrounds. Older adult participants were invited to participate in pre- and post-surveys, including a qualitative interview, to allow the team to further evaluate the success of the program among Hispanic/Latino participants and to determine the replicability of the project in other communities with a significant population of transportation disadvantaged Hispanic/Latino older adults.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

25

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
    • Texas
      • Arlington, Texas, United States, 76019
        • University of Texas at Arlington

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

  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Older adults age 65+
  • Those who no longer drive
  • Resident of Texas
  • Those who manage at least one health condition (e.g., diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.)
  • Spanish is primary language

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Those who do not have a capacity to answer the pre-screening questions due to their cognitive and physical limitations
  • Hispanic individuals who can speak fluent English will be excluded because they may have a better understanding of existing resources and information written and serviced in English in the community.

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: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Health Buddy Program
This intergenerational program targets Spanish speaking older adults who lack reliable and/or safe transportation and are managing at least one chronic illness. The program goal is to improve older adults' awareness of existing community resources, with an emphasis on transportation and health assets. Trained college students acted as facilitators for the program and helped older adults with relevant community resources.
Other: Healthy Buddy Program
The Healthy Buddy Program is a community-based initiative that pairs college students with transportation disadvantaged, community- dwelling older adults age 65 and older. The Spanish-language Healthy Buddy Program was developed to measure the transportation and health challenges of Hispanic/Latino older adults and determine the efficacy of the adapted HB program model.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Quality of life and well-being of older adults
Time Frame: 4 weeks
The title of the scale is Brief Older People's Quality of Life questionnaire. It is the short, 13-item version of the original Older People's Quality of Life questionnaire. Each of the 13 items is scored Strongly agree=5, Agree=4, Neither=3, Disagree=2, Strongly disagree=1. The items are summed for a total score, so that higher scores represented higher quality of life. The score ranges from 13 to 65.
4 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Self-efficacy correlated to emotion, stress, and health complaints
Time Frame: 4 weeks
The title of the scale is General Self-Efficacy scale. The General Self-Efficacy Scale has 10 items correlated to emotion, optimism, work satisfaction. Each item is scored Not at all true=1, Hardly true=2, Moderately true=3, and Exactly true=4. The total score is calculated by finding the sum of the all items.The total score ranges between 10 and 40, with a higher score indicating more self-efficacy.
4 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

The University of Texas at Arlington

Collaborators

University of South Florida
Center for Transportation, Equity, Decisions and Dollars

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)

October 23, 2020

Primary Completion (Actual)

May 6, 2021

Study Completion (Actual)

May 6, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 20, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 31, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

April 13, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 18, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 12, 2023

Last Verified

April 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2020-0391

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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