Baez Marcos, Khaghani Far Iman, Ibarra Francisco, Ferron Michela, Didino Daniele, Casati Fabio
Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, University of Trento , Trento , Trentino , Italy.
College of Computer & Information Science, Northeastern University , Boston , MA , United States.
PeerJ. 2017 Apr 5;5:e3150. doi: 10.7717/peerj.3150. eCollection 2017.
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 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.
旨在促进老年人身体活动的干预项目，无论是在团体环境还是家庭环境中开展，都显示出了相当的健康效果，但在考虑依从性时会有不同的结果。基于团体的干预措施似乎能在长期实现更高的参与度。然而，有许多因素会使团体锻炼对老年人来说成为一个具有挑战性的环境。其中一个主要因素，由于这一特定人群的异质性，是技能水平的差异。在本文中，我们报告了一项基于技术的干预措施的身体、心理和社会福祉结果，该措施使技能水平不同的老年人能够进行在线团体锻炼。
共有37名年龄在65至87岁之间的老年人遵循基于奥塔哥预防跌倒计划的个性化锻炼计划，为期八周。参与者可以使用基于平板电脑的应用程序参加在线团体锻炼。参与者被分配到对照组（代表传统的个体居家训练计划）或社交组（代表在线团体锻炼）。在训练前后进行测量，以分析身体、心理和社会福祉结果。
经过为期八周的训练计划后，社交组和对照组在身体方面都有改善，因为两组的依从性都很高。然而，考虑到基线测量结果，结果表明，虽然在对照组中身体状况较好的个体往往更能坚持训练，但社交组并非如此，在社交组中初始水平对依从性没有影响。在心理方面，两组都有改善，无论使用哪种应用程序。在社会福祉结果方面，两组之间没有显著差异，尽管社交组有社交功能，但两组的孤独感都有所下降。然而，在线社交互动已被证明与社交组孤独感的降低相关。
结果表明，技术支持的在线团体锻炼能够掩盖身体技能方面的个体差异，有效地激励和促使身体状况较差的个体与身体状况较好的个体进行同样多的训练。这不仅表明了在存在身体技能差异的情况下共同训练的可行性，还表明在线锻炼可能会减少技能差异对社交环境中依从性的影响。然而，该试点项目的结果仅限于小样本量，因此并不具有决定性。建议开展有更多参与者的长期干预措施，以评估对福祉和行为改变的影响。
Zotero 插件
