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A. Kimura1
1Gunma Paz University, Department of Physiotherapy, Takasaki, Japan
Background: There is a need for health education for the primary and secondary prevention of obesity among the visually impaired. As a public health challenge, the information that has been received in the past by radio broadcasts and other media that is appropriate for the health needs of visually impaired older adults is currently decreasing due to changes in broadcast content. Therefore, we are attempting to develop a coordinated physical therapy program for the prevention of physical inactivity through health literacy education by visiting public facilities.
Purpose: To determine is whether a 4.5-year health literacy program focusing on the prevention of physical inactivity, a 2-year literacy program, and 2 years of IoT-applied spatial cognitive support would change participation rates for 150 elderly visually impaired people living in suburban A town with a population of 6,000. We intended to conduct an interim evaluation using the number of participants in the program each year as the primary outcome.
Methods: The middle-aged and visually impaired people were those who participated in a health promotion course at the invitation of an organization for people with disabilities in the town.
The study period was from August 2014 to March 2019. Approximately every 6 months, participants were interviewed about sleep deprivation, physical inactivity, and consumption of a healthier diet, and odds ratios were determined for the pooled data for the association between these and the presence of obesity with a BMI of 25 or higher, and a McNemar test was performed.
In Intervention, during the first two years, we educated the participants on dietary knowledge to prevent lifestyle diseases without the use of IoT, focusing on the ice cream test, and after the third year, we taught them how to use infrared sensors to avoid conflicts with people that interfere with physical activity and how to properly perform aerobic exercise.
The study period was from August 2014 to March 2019. Approximately every 6 months, participants were interviewed about sleep deprivation, physical inactivity, and consumption of a healthier diet, and odds ratios were determined for the pooled data for the association between these and the presence of obesity with a BMI of 25 or higher, and a McNemar test was performed.
In Intervention, during the first two years, we educated the participants on dietary knowledge to prevent lifestyle diseases without the use of IoT, focusing on the ice cream test, and after the third year, we taught them how to use infrared sensors to avoid conflicts with people that interfere with physical activity and how to properly perform aerobic exercise.
Results: There were 83 participants and 63 blind participants, with an average of 15 per year; participation per year showed a significant increase between the first program and second program by year with 80% in the second year, 100% in the third year, and 105% in the fourth year. The mean age was 69 ± 10 years (mean ± SD), with 63% of men and 48% of women.
In the association between the development of obesity and health behaviors, McNemar's chi values showed p<.05 for both factors, but the odds ratio for the presence or absence of recommended behaviors remained within a 95% CI of 1 overall. No effect was identified.
In the association between the development of obesity and health behaviors, McNemar's chi values showed p<.05 for both factors, but the odds ratio for the presence or absence of recommended behaviors remained within a 95% CI of 1 overall. No effect was identified.
Conclusion(s): Regarding the behavioral change to prevent physical inactivity among visually impaired people as a zero-order prevention effect, participation rates decreased in a knowledge-granting content program but increased after the provision of a safe behavioral support environment and logistics linked to the IoT infrastructure to help the visually impaired perform safe and specific physical activities.
Implications: This program difference demonstrates the usefulness of considering the use of IoT to support physical inactivity for physical therapists in supporting physical inactivity for people with visual impairments to assist them in acquiring safety.
Funding, acknowledgements: This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 17K12417.
Keywords: Visually impaired people, physical inactivity, physiotherapy
Topic: Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Did this work require ethics approval? Yes
Institution: Gunma Paz University
Committee: Ethics Review Board of Gunma Paz University
Ethics number: 44819
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
