Supporting Healthy Aging by Peer Education and Support

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Canadians are living longer than ever before. However, many in our society age with long term chronic medical conditions which have a major impact on their need for healthcare, their quality of life and well-being. Encouragement of lifestyle practices which promote healthy aging and self-management techniques to deal with chronic disease is important in improving peoples' well-being The purpose of this study is to study the impact of peer delivered education and support for seniors living in the community to see if training given to other seniors improves healthy ageing behaviours and their health literacy.

Detailed Description
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In Canada, between 1960 and 2009, the proportion of seniors (people aged ≥65 years) rose from 8% to 14%; it is estimated that this proportion will increase to 23-25% by 2036. The number of people in the population aged ≥80 years is projected to more than double between 2009 and 2036. This population ageing has, and will, have a major impact on healthcare, economics, education, employment and social engagement. Many in our society age with long term chronic medical conditions; the management of which is partly responsible for the increasing consumption of health care resources in later life. There is a pressing need on the part of health care providers and policy makers to contain these increasing expenditures. Encouragement of lifestyle practices which promote successful or healthy aging and self - management techniques to deal with chronic disease are therefore of paramount importance to the achievement of this goal. Cost containment, however, is not the sole reason for pursuing such practice; there is some evidence that self-management and an increase in health literacy leads to an increased sense of empowerment and an improvement in health related quality of life for seniors. In the presence of chronic disease, self-management is seen as a critical element in containing resource demand and in empowering patients whilst increasing their health literacy. Self-management training courses have been developed for generic physical long term conditions which have led to improved outcomes and some cost savings in chronic care. There is therefore an opportunity to educate and empower seniors in both healthy ageing behaviours and self-management of chronic disease, which has the potential to contain health care resource use, improve perception of self-rated health and quality of life. This study aims to explore the use of health coaches, where health coaching can be defined as helping patients gain the knowledge, skills, tools and confidence to become active participants in their care so that they can reach their self-identified health goals, drawn from community dwelling seniors, rather than expert patients in educating and supporting their peers in healthy aging behaviours and self-management of chronic disease.

Official Title
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Supporting Healthy Aging by Peer Education and Support (SHAPES) - A Stepped-Wedge Cluster Randomized Trial

Conditions
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Health Behavior, Ageing

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Peer-led Health Education


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Both male and female community dwelling seniors who attend seniors centres in Edmonton Able to commit their time to participate in the study and complete the required assessments Speak and understand English Be under the care of or have access to a Family doctor Exclusion Criteria: Medical or psychological impairment which might seriously impair adherence to the program
Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Crossover Assignment
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Peer-led Health Education<br>A single 60 minute interactive workshop led by the trained health coach followed by a series of three one hour discussion groups | Behavioral: Peer-led Health Education<br>* Peer-led health education<br>|
| No Intervention: Control<br>No intervention | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Self-Rated Abilities for Healthy Practices Scale | Change in proportion of participating seniors engaged in healthy aging behaviours following the intervention compared to unexposed controls | 18 months | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Change in physical activity levels measured by the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) |  | 12 months | 
| Number of participants seeking health care as measured by Health care seeking and resource use questionnaire |  | 12 months | 
| Measure self-efficacy for participating seniors using The General Self-Efficacy Scale (GES) |  | 12 months | 
| Participant's willingness to change assessed by readiness to change ruler |  | 12 months | 
| Number of participating seniors satisfied with the health coaches assessed by a semi-structured interviews |  | 12 months | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Peer Education, Health Coaches, Community Dwelling Seniors, Health Literacy, Health Education, Healthy Ageing