STAND WHEN YOU CAN PROGRAM TO REDUCE SEDENTARY TIME IN ASSISTED LIVING SETTINGS: A PILOT STUDY

M.F. Fuentes Diaz^1,2, J. Copeland³, S. Dogra⁴, B. Leadbetter^1,2, J.P. Pope³, D. Bouchard^1,2

¹University of New Brunswick, Kinesiology, Fredericton, Canada, ²Cardiometabolic Exercise & Lifestyle Laboratory, UNB, Kinesiology, Fredericton, Canada, ³University of Lethbridge, Kinesiology and Physical Education, Lethbridge, Canada, ⁴University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Health Sciences (Kinesiology), Oshawa, Canada

Background: Older adults spend up to 80% of their waking time in sedentary behavior, which increases their risk of mortality and cardiometabolic diseases and diminishes their physical function, cognitive function, mental health, and quality of life. Older adults living in assisted living are at greater risk of sitting more as fewer chores must be performed. Recreational services are often over capacity and rarely offer activities that require residents to be in a standing position.

Purpose: To test the ability of an intervention guided by either a recreational staff in an assisted living residence or an external staff to offer activities and awareness around sedentary behavior to reduce sedentary time among participants.

Methods: A 6-week intervention to encourage day-to-day changes to promote less sedentary behavior for residents (n=13; 6 with recreation and 7 with an external staff) living in an assisted living setting. Tools were the same for each group (https://www.standwhenyoucan.ca), but the recreational staff implemented changes during day-to-day activities. In contrast, the external staff group received a one-hour weekly meeting to plan activities to do on their own during the next week. Sedentary time and upright time were estimated using activPAL inclinometers for seven days in a row, at baseline and after the intervention.

Results: The participants had an age of 83.8± 8.3 years; 38.5 % were males. The number of hours per day considered sedentary went from 10.3 ± 1.8 hours to 10.3 ± 1.6 hours in the group receiving the program with the recreational services compared to 9.9 ± 1.7 hours to9.3 ± 1.5 hours (+7.6%) for the group receiving the intervention from an external staff. In terms of upright time, it went from 4.8 ± 1.9 hours to 5.0 ± 1.9 hours (+4%) in the group receiving the program with the recreational services compared with 3.7 ± 1.7 hours to 4.8 hours ±1.7 (+23%).

Conclusions: Preliminary findings show that hiring a staff one hour per week and following a program to increase knowledge about sedentary behavior and suggest activities to reduce sitting time might be a better option than adding the program with the standard programming offered by the staff as part of the recreational services.

Implications:​This study is the lay ground to design a randomized trial to test if an hour per day of awareness about sedentary behavior while offering tools and strategies to reduce time sitting could lead to functional outcomes in assisted living residents.

Funding acknowledgements: Bridge Funding New Brunswick Health Research Foundation

Keywords:
Sedentary behavior
Older adults
Assisted living

Topics:
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: University of New Brunswick

Committee: UNB Research Ethics Board

Ethics number: REB 2021-076