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Study protocol of a multi-center RCT testing a social-cognitive intervention to promote volunteering in older adults against an active control.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Volunteering could be a win-win opportunity for older adults: Links between volunteering and societal improvements as well as older adults' own health and longevity are found in several observational studies. RCTs to increase volunteering in older adults are however sparse, leaving the question of causality unanswered. This study protocol describes a theory-based social-cognitive intervention with multiple behavior change techniques to increase volunteering among community-dwelling older adults in Hong Kong. METHODS:In a parallel group, two-arm, randomized controlled trial, an initial N?=?360 are assigned to receive either the volunteering intervention or the active control intervention (parallel content targeting physical activity). The primarily outcome measure is self-reported volunteering minutes per month at baseline, six weeks, three months and six months after the intervention. Participants in the treatment group are expected to increase their weekly volunteering minutes over time as compared to participants in the control group. Possible active ingredients of the intervention as well as mental and physical health outcomes of increased volunteering are investigated by means of mediation analyses. DISCUSSION:Like many industrialized nations, Hong Kong faces a rapid demographic change. An effective psychological intervention to encourage retirees to engage in formal volunteering would alleviate some of the societal challenges a growing proportion of older adults entails. TRIAL REGISTRATION:Primary Registry and Trial Identifying Number ChiCTR-IIC-17010349 , secondary CCRB trial number CUHK_CCRB00543, registration date 2016/12/28.

SUBMITTER: Warner LM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6345019 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Study protocol of a multi-center RCT testing a social-cognitive intervention to promote volunteering in older adults against an active control.

Warner Lisa M LM Jiang Da D Chong Alice Ming-Lin AM Li Tianyuan T Wolff Julia K JK Chou Kee-Lee KL

BMC geriatrics 20190124 1

<h4>Background</h4>Volunteering could be a win-win opportunity for older adults: Links between volunteering and societal improvements as well as older adults' own health and longevity are found in several observational studies. RCTs to increase volunteering in older adults are however sparse, leaving the question of causality unanswered. This study protocol describes a theory-based social-cognitive intervention with multiple behavior change techniques to increase volunteering among community-dwe ...[more]

PMID: 30678635

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Project description:There is compelling evidence supporting the benefits of increased regular physical activity in older adults. The Experience Corps program in Baltimore MD was designed in part as a community based approach to increasing physical activity that would also appeal to older adults who have historically not utilized health promotion programs. The Baltimore Experience Corps program places older volunteers in public elementary schools for 15 h a week in roles designed to improve the academic outcomes of children and, simultaneously, increase the physical, cognitive and social activity of volunteers. This paper reports on the change in physical activity levels among older adults associated with participation in the Baltimore Experience Corps. In a pilot randomized controlled evaluation, older adults were randomly assigned to Experience Corps (EC participants) or a waiting list control group. Ages ranged from 59-86 years, 96% were African American, 94% were women, and 84% had annual incomes less than $15,000. EC participants were required to serve >/=15 h a week. At follow-up after 4-8 months, an analysis of 113 randomized volunteers revealed 53% of the EC participants were more active than the previous year by self-report, as compared to 23% of the controls (p<0.01). When adjusted for age, gender and education, there was a trend toward increased physical activity in the EC participants as calculated by a kilocalorie per week increase of 40%, versus a 16% decrease in the controls (p=0.49). EC participants who reported "low activity" at baseline experienced an average 110% increase in their physical activity at follow-up. Among the controls who were in the "low activity" group at baseline, there was, on average, only a 12% increase in physical activity (p=0.03). Among those who were previously active, there was no significant difference (p=0.30). The pilot results suggest that a high intensity volunteer program that is designed as a health promotion intervention can lead, in the short-term, to significant improvements in the level of physical activity of previously inactive older adult volunteers.

Project description:There is a need to stimulate physical activity among adolescents, but unfortunately, they are hard to reach with traditional mass media interventions. A promising alternative is to carry out social network interventions. In social network interventions, a small group of individuals (influence agents) is selected to promote health-related behaviors within their social network. This study investigates whether a social network intervention is more effective to promote physical activity, compared to a mass media intervention and no intervention. Adolescents (N = 446; M age = 11.35, SD age = 1.34; 47% male) were randomly allocated by classroom (N = 26, in 11 schools) to one of three conditions: social network intervention, mass media intervention, or control condition. In the social network intervention, 15% of the participants (based on peer nominations) was approached to become an influence agent, who created vlogs about physical activity that were shown during the intervention. In the mass media intervention, participants were exposed to vlogs made by unfamiliar peers (i.e., vlogs of the social network intervention). The control condition did not receive vlogs about physical activity. All participants received a research smartphone to complete questionnaires and a wrist-worn accelerometer to measure physical activity. The trial was registered a priori in the Dutch Trial Registry (NTR6903). There were no differences in objectively measured physical activity between this social network intervention and the control condition in the short-term, but there was an unexpected increase in the control condition compared to the social network intervention in the long-term. No differences between the social network intervention and mass media intervention were observed. The current study does not provide evidence that this social network intervention is effective in increasing physical activity in adolescents. Exploratory analyses suggest that this social network intervention increased the perceived social norm toward physical activity and responses to the vlogs were more positive in the social network intervention than in the mass media intervention. These initial results warrant further research to investigate the role of the social norms and the added benefit of using influence agents for social network interventions. Clinical Trial Registration: https://www.trialregister.nl/, identifier NTR6903.

Project description:As aging is associated with cognitive decline, particularly in the executive functions, it is essential to effectively improve cognition in older adults. Online cognitive training is currently a popular, though controversial method. Although some changes seem possible in older adults through training, far transfer, and longitudinal maintenance are rarely seen. Based on previous literature we created a unique, state-of-the-art intervention study by incorporating frequent sessions and flexible, novel, adaptive training tasks, along with an active control group. We created a program called TAPASS (Training Project Amsterdam Seniors and Stroke), a randomized controlled trial. Healthy older adults (60-80 y.o.) were assigned to a frequent- (FS) or infrequent switching (IS) experimental condition or to the active control group and performed 58 half-hour sessions over the course of 12 weeks. Effects on executive functioning, processing- and psychomotor speed, planning, verbal long term memory, verbal fluency, and reasoning were measured on four time points before, during and after the training. Additionally, we examined the explorative question which individual aspects added to training benefit. Besides improvements on the training, we found significant time effects on multiple transfer tasks in all three groups that likely reflected retest effects. No training-specific improvements were detected, and we did not find evidence of additional benefits of individual characteristics. Judging from these results, the therapeutic value of using commercially available training games to train the aging brain is modest, though any apparent effects should be ascribed more to expectancy and motivation than to the elements in our training protocol. Our results emphasize the importance of using parallel tests as outcome measures for transfer and including both active and passive control conditions. Further investigation into different training methods is advised, including stimulating social interaction and the use of more variable, novel, group-based yet individual-adjusted exercises.

Dataset Information

Study protocol of a multi-center RCT testing a social-cognitive intervention to promote volunteering in older adults against an active control.

Publications

Study protocol of a multi-center RCT testing a social-cognitive intervention to promote volunteering in older adults against an active control.

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