Effects of online group exercises for older adults on physical, psychological and social wellbeing: a randomized pilot trial.
Effects of online group exercises for older adults on physical, psychological and social wellbeing: a randomized pilot trial.
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作者：
Baez M;Khaghani Far I;Ibarra F;Ferron M;Didino D;Casati F
促进老年人身体活动的干预项目，无论是在团体中还是在家庭环境中，都显示出相同的健康结果，但在考虑是否坚持时，结果却不同。从长期来看，基于群体的干预措施似乎获得了更高的参与度。然而，对于老年人来说，有许多因素会使团体锻炼成为一个具有挑战性的环境。由于这一特定人群的异质性，一个主要的原因是技能水平的差异。在这篇论文中，我们报告了一种基于技术的干预的身体、心理和社会健康结果，这种干预使具有不同技能水平的老年人能够进行在线小组练习。共有37名年龄在65岁至87岁之间的老年人参加了为期八周的个性化锻炼计划，该计划基于奥塔哥预防跌倒计划。参与者可以使用基于平板电脑的应用程序加入在线小组练习。参与者被分配到控制组，代表传统的个人家庭训练计划，或者社会组，代表在线小组锻炼。前后测量被用来分析身体、心理和社会健康结果。经过八周的训练计划，社交组和控制组的身体状况都有所改善，因为两组人都坚持训练。然而，考虑到基线测量，结果表明，在对照组中，更健康的个体倾向于坚持更多的训练，而在社会组中，情况并非如此，初始水平对坚持没有影响。无论使用何种应用，两组的心理结果都有所改善。在社会福利结果方面，两组之间没有显著差异，尽管社会组中存在社会特征，但两组的孤独感都有所减少。然而，在线社交互动已被证明与社交群体中孤独感的减少有关。结果表明，技术支持的在线团体锻炼掩盖了个体在身体技能上的差异，有效地激励和使不太健康的个体与健康的个体一样多地训练。这不仅表明，尽管身体技能存在差异，但一起训练是可行的，而且还表明，在社交环境中，在线锻炼可能会降低技能对坚持性的影响。然而，该试验的结果仅限于小样本量，因此不是结论性的。相反，建议采用更多参与者的长期干预措施来评估对健康和行为改变的影响。
Intervention programs to promote physical activity in older adults, either in group or home settings, have shown equivalent health outcomes but different results when considering adherence. Group-based interventions seem to achieve higher participation in the long-term. However, there are many factors that can make of group exercises a challenging setting for older adults. A major one, due to the heterogeneity of this particular population, is the difference in the level of skills. In this paper we report on the physical, psychological and social wellbeing outcomes of a technology-based intervention that enable online group exercises in older adults with different levels of skills. A total of 37 older adults between 65 and 87 years old followed a personalized exercise program based on the OTAGO program for fall prevention, for a period of eight weeks. Participants could join online group exercises using a tablet-based application. Participants were assigned either to the Control group, representing the traditional individual home-based training program, or the Social group, representing the online group exercising. Pre- and post- measurements were taken to analyze the physical, psychological and social wellbeing outcomes. After the eight-weeks training program there were improvements in both the Social and Control groups in terms of physical outcomes, given the high level of adherence of both groups. Considering the baseline measures, however, the results suggest that while in the Control group fitter individuals tended to adhere more to the training, this was not the case for the Social group, where the initial level had no effect on adherence. For psychological outcomes there were improvements on both groups, regardless of the application used. There was no significant difference between groups in social wellbeing outcomes, both groups seeing a decrease in loneliness despite the presence of social features in the Social group. However, online social interactions have shown to be correlated to the decrease in loneliness in the Social group. The results indicate that technology-supported online group-exercising which conceals individual differences in physical skills is effective in motivating and enabling individuals who are less fit to train as much as fitter individuals. This not only indicates the feasibility of training together despite differences in physical skills but also suggests that online exercise might reduce the effect of skills on adherence in a social context. However, results from this pilot are limited to a small sample size and therefore are not conclusive. Longer term interventions with more participants are instead recommended to assess impacts on wellbeing and behavior change.