Combined use of smartphone and smartband technology in the improvement of lifestyles in the adult population over 65 years: study protocol for a randomized clinical trial (EVIDENT-Age study)

Abstract

BackgroundThe increasing use of smartphones by older adults also increases their potential for improving different aspects of health in this population. Some studies have shown promising results in the improvement of cognitive performance through lifestyle modification. All this may have a broad impact on the quality of life and carrying out daily living activities. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of combining the use of smartphone and smartband technology for 3 months with brief counseling on life habits, as opposed to providing counseling only, in increasing physical activity and improving adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Secondary objectives are to assess the effect of the intervention on body composition, quality of life, independence in daily living activities and cognitive performance.MethodsThis study is a two-arm cluster-randomized trial that will be carried out in urban health centers in Spain. We will recruit 160 people aged between 65 and 80 without cardiovascular disease or cognitive impairment (score in the Mini-mental State Examination ≥24). On a visit to their center, intervention group participants will be instructed to use a smartphone application for a period of 3 months. This application integrates information on physical activity received from a fitness bracelet and self-reported information on the patient’s daily nutritional composition. The primary outcome will be the change in the number of steps measured by accelerometer. Secondary variables will be adherence to the Mediterranean diet, sitting time, body composition, quality of life, independence in daily living activities and cognitive performance. All variables will be measured at baseline and on the assessment visit after 3 months. A telephone follow-up will be carried out at 6 months to collect self-reported data regarding physical activity and adherence to the Mediterranean diet.DiscussionPreventive healthy aging programs should include health education with training in nutrition and lifestyles, while stressing the importance of and enhancing physical activity; the inclusion of new technologies can facilitate these goals. The EVIDENT-AGE study will incorporate a simple, accessible intervention with potential implementation in the care of older adults.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03574480. Date of trial Registration July 2, 2018.

e-Health interventions for healthy aging: a systematic review

“…Finally, as the last search was conducted in April 2018, it is possible that more recent trials were not included. We conducted a rapid literature search in PubMed in March 2020 looking for potentially relevant studies published after the last update and identified one published study [89] and six published protocols [90][91][92][93][94][95], which indicates that several trials of e-Health interventions for HA are currently ongoing. We thus recommend to update this systematic review within the next 2 years as more evidence is likely to change the conclusions of the present systematic review.…”

The Effect of Mediterranean Diet on Cognitive Functions in the Elderly Population

“… The subjects had to be at the age 55+ years old. The exclusion criteria were as follows: The review studies [ 10 , 16 , 17 , 18 ], slightly different research focus [ 19 ], multi-domain intervention studies [ 9 , 20 , 21 ], study protocols [ 22 , 23 ], the studies outside the determined period [ 11 , 12 ] or the studies with different age of participants [ 24 ]. …”

Influence of Connected Health Interventions for Adherence to Cardiovascular Disease Prevention: A Scoping Review

“…The patients with cardiometabolic disease studied reported that lifestyle-targeting text messaging approaches were feasible and acceptable, and that the text messages were easy to understand (88%) and were sent at an Connected Health Interventions to Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Agher et al 549 appropriate frequency (71%), in appropriate language (88%). Most of the studies used "smartphone health applications (connect)" [8][9][10][11][12]15,16,19,20,22,[24][25][26][27] . "Focus group" (do) and "Education" (read) were used together in two articles.…”

“…In six articles, "moderate adherence" (orange line) was achieved. 8,14,17,[22][23][24] Five articles did not mention or evaluate adherence. These articles are indicated by gray lines as "adherence unknown" in ►Fig.…”