Metrics details. Encouraging compliance with recommended levels of exercise for older adults is a public health challenge. A minimal-resource solution is telephone coaching. Primary aim: to compare timed up and go TUG performance 6 months after beginning a home exercise program between a group of older individuals who received additional telephone coaching, and a control group performing the home exercise program alone. Secondary aims: to compare functional and fall-related outcomes between groups at 6 and 12 months.
Multicentre, assessor-blinded, randomised, controlled, open label, prospective study. All participants received a home exercise booklet and were asked to perform a set of exercises as often as possible daily. The coaching group additionally received a monthly telephone call total 5 calls from their previous physiotherapist. Primary outcome was TUG performance at 6 months. Outcomes were measured at inclusion, and at 6 and 12 months.
The primary outcome was analysed using a linear mixed model adjusted for the baseline value. TUG performance did not differ between groups at 6 months adjusted difference 1.
Secondary outcomes did not differ between groups at 6 or 12 months except compliance to the exercise program was higher in the coaching than the control group at 6 months adjusted difference 1. The lack of difference between the groups in the time taken to complete the TUG at 6 months suggests that the monthly telephone coaching sessions did not improve the effectiveness of a home exercise programme in elderly people who had suffered at least one fall.
The trial was registered on ClinicalTrials. Peer Review reports. Falls experienced by older adults are a major public health issue. A study on health behaviours reported that Recent recommendations state that older adults at low fall risk should aim to participate in β min per week of intermediate-intensity physical activity or 75β min per week of vigorous-intensity physical activity, those at a medium risk should participate in supervised programs and those at high fall risk should undergo multidomain interventions [ 4 ].
