Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
Department of Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden.
BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2024 Feb 12;24(1):44. doi: 10.1186/s12911-024-02452-z.
Physical inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle are common among people with heart failure (HF), which may lead to worse prognosis. On an already existing mHealth platform, we developed a novel tool called the Activity coach, aimed at increasing physical activity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usability of the Activity coach and assess feasibility of outcome measures for a future efficacy trial.
A mixed-methods design was used to collect data. People with a HF diagnosis were recruited to use the Activity coach for four weeks. The Activity coach educates the user about physical activity, provides means of registering daily physical activity and helps the user to set goals for the next week. The usability was assessed by analysing system user logs for adherence, reported technical issues and by interviews about user experiences. Outcome measures assessed for feasibility were objective physical activity as measured by an accelerometer, and subjective goal attainment. Progression criteria for the usability assessment and for the proposed outcomes, were described prospectively.
Ten people with HF were recruited, aged 56 to 78 with median age 72. Data from nine of the ten study participants were included in the analyses. Usability: The Activity coach was used 61% of the time and during the first week two study participants called to seek technical support. The Activity coach was found to be intuitive and easy to use by all study participants. An increased motivation to be more physically active was reported by six of the nine study participants. However, in spite of feeling motivated, four reported that their habits or behaviours had not been affected by the Activity coach.
Data was successfully stored in the deployed hardware as intended and the accelerometers were used enough, for the data to be analysable. One finding was that the subjective outcome goal attainment, was challenging to collect. A proposed mitigator for this is to use pre-defined goals in future studies, as opposed to having the study participants be completely free to formulate the goals themselves.
It was confirmed that the Activity coach was easy to use. Furthermore, it might stimulate increased physical activity in a population of people with HF, who are physically inactive. The outcomes investigated seem feasible to include in a future efficacy trial.
ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05235763. Date of first registration: 11/02/2022.
身体活动不足和久坐的生活方式在心力衰竭（HF）患者中很常见，这可能导致预后更差。在现有的移动医疗平台上，我们开发了一种名为“活动教练”的新工具，旨在增加身体活动。本研究的目的是评估活动教练的可用性，并评估未来疗效试验的结果测量的可行性。
采用混合方法设计收集数据。招募了 HF 诊断患者使用活动教练四周。活动教练教育用户有关身体活动的知识，提供日常身体活动登记的手段，并帮助用户为下周设定目标。通过分析系统用户日志以评估依从性、报告的技术问题以及对用户体验的访谈，评估了可用性。评估可行性的结果测量包括使用加速度计测量的客观身体活动和主观目标达成情况。为可用性评估和拟议结果描述了前瞻性进展标准。
招募了 10 名 HF 患者，年龄 56 至 78 岁，中位年龄 72 岁。对 10 名研究参与者中的 9 名进行了数据分析。可用性：活动教练的使用时间为 61%，在第一周有两名研究参与者打电话寻求技术支持。所有研究参与者都认为活动教练直观易用。9 名研究参与者中有 6 名报告说，他们的动机有所增强，更愿意进行更多的身体活动。然而，尽管感到有动力，但有 4 人表示，他们的习惯或行为并未受到活动教练的影响。
数据成功地按照预期存储在部署的硬件中，并且加速度计的使用足够多，可以对数据进行分析。一个发现是，主观结果目标达成情况很难收集。为了解决这个问题，建议在未来的研究中使用预定义的目标，而不是让研究参与者完全自由地制定自己的目标。
证实活动教练易于使用。此外，它可能会刺激 HF 人群增加身体活动，这些人身体活动不足。调查的结果似乎可以包括在未来的疗效试验中。
ClinicalTrials.gov 标识符：NCT05235763。首次注册日期：2022 年 2 月 11 日。
