Clinical trial NCT02128789: Bring Communities and Technology Together for Healthy Aging
Official title: Bring Communities and Technology Together for Healthy Aging
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: 65 Years Older
Requires IADL Support
Past Year History of Falls and/or Hospitalization
Keywords: Older Adults
Caregivers
Aging
Support
Lead sponsor: University of Wisconsin, Madison
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
name: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
First posted: 2014-05-01
Enrollment: 600
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 65
Standard ages: OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Brief summary: Technology has been created to help older adults age well in their homes, but adoption and acceptance have been slow. The researchers are developing a low-cost web-based technology, called Elder Tree, for older adults and caregivers to address key challenges older adults face, such as loneliness and isolation, falls, loss of driving privileges, relapsing from proven falls prevention strategies, and unreliable home services. Elder Tree is being developed and tested with older adults and caregivers to identify, 1) usability issues such as font size, navigation and interface (audio, video,text) and 2) content and tailoring issues such as identifying local resources and events. This study will employ a randomized longitudinal design comparing a control group to an intervention group over a 12-month period. Investigators hypothesize that older adults using Elder Tree will experience greater independence and quality of life when compared to the control group. Investigators will use quantitative measures to determine how much our intervention improves: quality of life and health system use. These measures will help us to determine the cost effectiveness of Elder Tree. Investigators will recruit and test Elder Tree in 3 Regional Aging and Disability Resource Centers; one urban, one suburban and one rural setting, so to account for environmental and community differences. The older adult and their caregiver will be randomized to the same treatment group. Investigators will measure the effect over the 12 month intervention period and a 6 month follow-up period at 18 months.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* 65 years or older
* In need of IADL support
* 1 years history or risk of hospitalization or falls
* Resident of the following counties Milwaukee, WI, Waukesha Wi or Richland County
* Must be able to read English at a 6th grade level.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Under 65 years of age
* Unable to read English
* Not a resident of the above listed counties.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Number of older adult subjects with increased independence and quality of life from baseline to 18 months
timeFrame: Change in independence and quality of life will be assessed at 6, 12 , 18 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Number of caregiver subjects with improved satisfaction
timeFrame: Change in improved caregiver satisfaction will be assessed at 6, 12 , 18 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Madison
country: United States
facility: University of WI Madison
state: Wisconsin
Study officials:
References:
citation: Gustafson DH Sr, Kornfield R, Mares ML, Johnston DC, Cody OJ, Yang EF, Gustafson DH Jr, Hwang J, Mahoney JE, Curtin JJ, Tahk A, Shah DV. Effect of an eHealth intervention on older adults' quality of life and health-related outcomes: a randomized clinical trial. J Gen Intern Med. 2022 Feb;37(3):521-530. doi: 10.1007/s11606-021-06888-1. Epub 2021 Jun 7.
citation: Gustafson DH Sr, McTavish F, Gustafson DH Jr, Mahoney JE, Johnson RA, Lee JD, Quanbeck A, Atwood AK, Isham A, Veeramani R, Clemson L, Shah D. The effect of an information and communication technology (ICT) on older adults' quality of life: study protocol for a randomized control trial. Trials. 2015 Apr 25;16:191. doi: 10.1186/s13063-015-0713-2.