Robot-based Intervention to Improve Physical Activity in Older Adults

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

The jog or ground go no go task for retraining automatic bias: Recruited participants will be performing the JOGGNG Task on the Kinarm Endpoint Laboratory. This task requires participants to control a robotic handle to manipulate a virtual avatar that looks as if it is jogging across a field. During the jogging, a frisbee will appear and quickly move towards the avatar, eventually tilting clockwise or counterclockwise. Participants are required to either reach quickly to grab the frisbee from the air during clockwise tilts or to not move during counterclockwise tilts. This tilt/movement associated is reversed to control for a potential bias in tilt angle and movement. An image of physical activity or sedentary behaviour will appear inside of the frisbee but participants are not told that it is associated with any of the tilts. Each trial consists of one frisbee and participants will complete a total of 3 blocks of 360 trials each which will take approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Study summary

Physical inactivity is considered a global pandemic negatively impacting the health of over 60% of older adults in America. Interventions aimed at improving physical activity in older adults focus on training reflective processes such as providing information on health benefits of physical activity. These interventions generally find that participants improved their intentions to be physically active rather than supporting actual change in behaviours to become physically active.

There is growing support for the idea that human behaviour is the result of a combination of quick automatic processes and slower reflective processes. Interventional studies have used cognitive bias modification tasks that target the quick automatic processes to retrain participant's bias. Such studies find that participant's bias towards diet, alcohol, and phobias can be altered using these cognitive bias modification tasks.

In this study, the investigators developed a new training task using a robotic device that aims to retrain automatic bias towards physical activity and sedentary behaviours. The robotic device allows greater immersive environments for participants to interact with and be more engaged with the cognitive bias modification task. This interventional study is testing whether this new robot-based training and the protocol for assessing physical activity is feasible for retraining older adults' bias towards physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Participants will be examined on their daily physical activity using an accelerometer, their physical ability using functional tests, and their perceptions on physical activity using questionnaires. To determine whether this protocol is feasible, the investigators will examine participant recruitment and retention rates.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Determinants of Protocol Feasibility: Recruitment Rate and Retention Rate — From enrollment to the end of recruitment at 7 months
  The main purpose of this study is to determine whether the intervention protocol is feasible and thus the primary outcomes are recruitment rates, retention rates, and reasons for study dropout.

Trial sites (1)

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