Home-Based Intervention Program to Reduce Food Insecurity in Elderly Populations Using a TV App: Study Protocol of the Randomized Controlled Trial Saúde.Come Senior

Abstract

BackgroundThe limited or uncertain access to adequate food in elderly people includes not only economic restrictions but also inability of food utilization due to functional or cognitive impairment, health problems, and illiteracy.ObjectiveThe aim of this work is to present the protocol of the randomized controlled trial Saúde.Come Senior, an educational and motivational television (TV)-based intervention to promote healthy lifestyles and decrease food insecurity in elderly people.MethodsA randomized controlled study will be conducted in subjects aged 60 years and older with food insecurity, identified at 17 primary care centers in the Lisboa e Vale do Tejo health region in Lisbon, Portugal. The primary outcome will be the changes in participants’ food insecurity score (evaluated by the Household Food Insecurity Scale) at 3 months. Change in other outcomes will be assessed (dietary habits, nutritional status, physical activity, health status, and clinical outcomes). Subjects will be followed over 6 months; the intervention will last 3 months. Data collection will be performed at 3 different time points (baseline, end of intervention at 3 months, and follow-up at 6 months). The intervention is based on an interactive TV app with an educational and motivational program specifically developed for the elderly that has weekly themes and includes daily content in video format: (1) nutrition and diet tips for healthy eating, (2) healthy, easy to cook and low-cost recipes, and (3) physical exercise programs. Furthermore, brief reminders on health behaviors will also be broadcasted through the TV app. The total duration of the study will be 6 months. The intervention is considered to be effective and meaningful if 50% of the individuals in the experimental group have a decrease of 1 point in the food insecurity score, all the remaining being unchanged. We expect to include and randomize 282 (141 experimental and 141 control) elderly with food insecurity. We will recruit a total of 1,128 subjects considering that 50% of the target individuals are food insecure (based on INFOFAMÍLIA Survey) (567) and about 50% of those will adhere to the study (282).ResultsThe randomized controlled trial with the 12-week home-based intervention with a comprehensive program on healthy eating and physical activity delivery is planned to start recruiting participants at the end of 2017.ConclusionsThis study will assess the efficacy of this innovative tool (Saúde.Come Senior) for disseminating relevant health information, modifying behaviors, and decreasing food insecurity in an easy, low-cost, and massive way.

Functional Status and Quality of Life Determinants of a Group of Elderly People With Food Insecurity

“…The research was carried out from the data collected at the baseline of the sample from Saúde.Come—senior—one of the intervention studies of “Saúde.Come—Promoting Food Security,” which was approved by the Ethics Committee of Nova Medical School/Faculty of Medical Sciences of Nova de Lisboa University (NMS/FCM-UNL) under number 20/2015/CEFCM. Details of the study protocol was published elsewhere ( 13 ).…”

Technologies for Monitoring Lifestyle Habits Related to Brain Health: A Systematic Review

“…Studies on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and habit management have been included in the “life purpose” pillar. As can be seen in Figure 2, the five studies focused on physical activity [27,32,34,36,37] represent a third of the total, and the five focused on life purpose studies [28,30,35,39,40] represent another third. Four of the studies related to the “life purpose” pillar [30,32,41,42] (80% of the “life purpose” pillar related studies and 26.66% of the total of studies) focus on habit management and CBT.…”

“…Four of the studies related to the “life purpose” pillar [30,32,41,42] (80% of the “life purpose” pillar related studies and 26.66% of the total of studies) focus on habit management and CBT. Only two of the studies [36,40], which represent 13.33%, are multimodal. The study from Merriman et al [36] combined physical exercise and cognitive activity, whereas the one from Rodrigues et al [40] focused on nutrition and physical exercise.…”

“…Only two of the studies [36,40], which represent 13.33%, are multimodal. The study from Merriman et al [36] combined physical exercise and cognitive activity, whereas the one from Rodrigues et al [40] focused on nutrition and physical exercise. There are no studies focused on sleep, overall health, or socialization that otherwise fulfilled our filtering criteria.…”

“…Figure 3 shows the classification of studies according to how they monitor subjects. Eight of the studies identified (53.33%) [30,31,32,33,35,37,40,41] employed light monitoring, based on questionnaires and tests to get data and parameters from users. Three of the studies [29,36,39] (20%) employed heavy monitoring with controlled spaces or specific devices.…”