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Rehabilitation medicine
Original research
Feasibility and acceptability study on the use of a smartphone application to facilitate balance training in the ageing population
  1. Enrica Papi1,2,
  2. Shin-Yi Chiou1,3,
  3. Alison H McGregor1
  1. 1Department of Surgery and Cancer, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK
  2. 2Bioengineering Department, Imperial College London, London, UK
  3. 3School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Enrica Papi; e.papi{at}imperial.ac.uk

Abstract

Objectives This study aims to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of using an app-based technology to train balance in the older population.

Design Prospective feasibility study.

Setting The study was conducted in a university setting and participants’ homes.

Participants Thirty-five volunteers ≥55 years old were recruited.

Intervention Participants were asked to follow a balance exercise programme 7 days a week for 3 weeks using a phone application. Seventeen participants trained for a further 3 weeks.

Outcome measures Postural sway measures during quiet standing with feet at shoulder width apart and feet together, one leg standing and tandem stance were measured at baseline, and at the end of the 3 and 6 training weeks; the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) assessed participants’ physical activity level before training; and app acceptability was recorded using a user experience questionnaire.

Results Participants on the 3 and 6-week programme on average completed 20 (±5) and 38 (±11) days of training, respectively, and all scored moderate to high on the IPAQ. Between baseline and the 3-week assessments, statistically significant improvements were observed for anteroposterior sway, mediolateral sway, sway area during tandem stance, for anteroposterior sway during one leg standing and for sway area during feet together stance. Improvements were observed at 6 week compared with baseline but those between 3 and 6 weeks were not significant. Based on the questionnaire, participants reported that the app is an appropriate tool for balance training (77%), they reported benefits from the training (50%) and found it easy to fit it into daily routine (88%).

Conclusion The high level of adherence and improvements observed in the analysed measures demonstrate the feasibility of using an app to train balance in moderately to highly physically active older participants. This demonstrates that given appropriate tools the older population is positive towards and receptive of digital interventions aimed to improve balance.

  • adult pathology
  • preventive medicine
  • primary care
  • rehabilitation medicine
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039054

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @enrica_papi

    • Contributors EP, SYC and AHM conceived and designed the study. EP and SYC carried out the assessments. EP analysed the data and drafted the manuscript. All authors read, edited and approved the final version of the manuscript. All authors had full access to all of the data in the study and can take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

    • Funding This research received funding from Nymbl.

    • Competing interests The authors report grants from Nymbl (Nymbl Science, Denver, USA) during the conduct of the study.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Ethics approval The study was reviewed and approved by the East Midlands-Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee (reference number: 17/EM/0042). All participants gave written informed consent.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement Data are available upon reasonable request. Data will be available upon request.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.