Effect of a home-based exercise program on functional mobility and quality of life in elderly people: protocol of a single-blind, randomized controlled trial

Glauber Sá Brandão,Alyne Soares,Deise A A Pires-Oliveira,Glaudson Sá Brandão,Luisa Teixeira Pasqualotto,Ezequiel Fernandes Oliveira,Jessica Julioti Urbano,Newton Santos Faria,Aquiles Assunção Camelier,Anderson Soares Silva,Rodrigo Franco Oliveira,Antônia Adonis Callou Sampaio,Luís Vicente Franco Oliveira

doi:10.1186/s13063-018-3061-1

Abstract

BackgroundElderly people have high rates of functional decline, which compromises independence, self-confidence, and quality of life (QoL). Physical exercise leads to significant improvements in strength, balance, functional mobility, and QoL, but there is still reduced access to this therapeutic strategy due to difficulties in locomotion to training centers or lack of adaptation to the exercise environment.Methods/designThe purpose of this clinical trial will be to verify the effect of a progressive and semi-supervised, home-based exercise program on the functional mobility, and in the QoL of sedentary elderly people. This is a protocol of a consecutive, single-center, single-blind, and randomized controlled trial. The design, conduct, and report follows the SPIRIT (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials) guidelines. Sedentary elderly people will be enrolled, and randomly allocated into two groups. The intervention group will perform exercises in their own home and the control group will not perform exercises. The evaluations will occur at study enrollment and after 3 months of intervention, and will be performed using the functional mobility Timed Up & Go (TUG) test and sociodemographic and QoL questionnaires. In the statistical analysis, comparisons of mean and correlation analyses will be performed. The primary expected outcome is the improvement in functional mobility verified through the TUG test and the secondary outcome is the improvement in QoL verified by the WHOQOL-OLD.DiscussionThe lack of scientific evidence demonstrating the benefits of semi-supervised home exercise on functional mobility and QoL in elderly people represents an obstacle to the development of guidelines for clinical practice and for policy-makers. The World Health Organization highlighted the importance of musculoskeletal health programs for elderly people, and the exercise program described in this protocol was designed to be viable, easy to implement, and inexpensive, and could be performed at the home of elderly subjects after receiving only guidelines and follow-up via periodic visits. Based on these facts, we hope that this study will demonstrate that a well-structured, home-based exercise program can be effective in improving functional mobility and QoL of sedentary elderly people, even without constant supervision during exercise.Trial registrationRegistro Brasileiro de Ensaios Clínicos (ReBEC), Identifier: RBR-3cqzfy. Registered on 2 December 2016.

Highlights

People have high rates of functional decline, which compromises independence, selfconfidence, and quality of life (QoL)
The lack of scientific evidence demonstrating the benefits of semi-supervised home exercise on functional mobility and QoL in elderly people represents an obstacle to the development of guidelines for clinical practice and for policy-makers
The World Health Organization highlighted the importance of musculoskeletal health programs for elderly people, and the exercise program described in this protocol was designed to be viable, easy to implement, and inexpensive, and could be performed at the home of elderly subjects after receiving only guidelines and follow-up via periodic visits

Summary

Introduction

People have high rates of functional decline, which compromises independence, selfconfidence, and quality of life (QoL). Physical exercise leads to significant improvements in strength, balance, functional mobility, and QoL, but there is still reduced access to this therapeutic strategy due to difficulties in locomotion to training centers or lack of adaptation to the exercise environment. People in the community have high rates of functional decline and disability, progressively compromising their independence, self-confidence, and QoL. Some studies have demonstrated that the implementation of specific physical exercise programs produces significant improvements in muscle strength, balance, and functional mobility of elderly people, even in subjects of more advanced age, and that regular practice of these exercises produces positive effects on the QoL in this population [7, 9, 10]. A recent study [12] showed that elderly people with a history of falls prefer to participate in exercise programs that can be performed at home or do not require transportation

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