Promoting Movement in Older Adults in the Community

Frailty, Mobility Limitation

It is well known that exercise is great medicine, however, for frail older adults who are often homebound and require assistance with personal care, there are gaps in both prescribing this medicine and in filling the prescription. The investigators will uncover and address the barriers that prevent frail older adults from increasing their level of physical activity. With input from frail older adults, caregivers, and healthcare providers, the investigators will create a free, easy to use, home-based program that incorporates physical activity such as gentle stretches and range of motion exercises when personal care is being provided. This innovation will add great value to the type of care that is being provided to homebound frail older adults. Incorporating physical activity as part of the care provided offers a unique opportunity for homebound frail older adults to move more, and improve their well-being.

Mobilization in frail older adults (OAs) can improve cardiovascular outcomes, musculoskeletal function, and functional independence (Bray, Smart, Jakobi, & Jones, 2016) (Roland, Theou, Jakobi, & Frailty, 2014) (Theou et al., 2011). Detriments of immobility include an increased risk of functional disability, falls, and premature mortality (Hubbard, Parsons, Neilson, & Carey, 2009). There are numerous mobility interventions targeted to community-dwelling frail OAs (Sherrington et al., 2019); however, they either have a narrow focus on falls prevention (Fairhall, Sherrington, & Cameron, 2013) (Sherrington et al., 2019) or they target mildly frail OAs (Johnson, Myers, Scholey, Cyarto, & Ecclestone, 2003) (Giangregorio et al., 2018) (Binder et al., 2002). A review of home-based mobility interventions concluded that high-risk OAs who have been recently discharged from hospital may require an intervention that is tailored specifically for them (Hill, Hunter, Batchelor, Cavalheri, & Burton, 2015) (Sherrington et al., 2019). The intervention will focus on active range of motion exercises in frail OAs who are homebound or recovering from a health crisis and unable to participate in more rigorous exercise regimens. Gentle stretches and range of motion activities can have immediate benefits to frail OAs. (O'Brien Cousins & Horne, 1999). The first objective is to create an evidence- informed, theory-driven mobility intervention for community-dwelling OAs who are moderately and severely frail according to the clinical frailty scale (Rockwood et al., 2005). The intervention, entitled Promoting Movement in OAs (ProMO), will be implementable with frail OAs in partnership with any care provider in the home such as personal support workers (PSWs) and families. The investigators will focus the study on the two main providers of care- PSWs. OAs, PSWs, and caregivers will co-create ProMO with us. ProMO will be distinct from existing home-based exercise programs (Johnson et al., 2003) (Giangregorio et al., 2018) because it will optimize natural opportunities for mobilization during care (e.g., bathing and dressing) and will be embedded in facilitated activities of daily living. The second objective is to pilot and evaluate ProMO in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The primary output will be a free, user-friendly, and sustainable mobility intervention. A secondary output will be new knowledge about the process and outcome of a tailored, home-based mobility intervention.

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