Feasibility of additional physiotherapy for patients aged 75 and older
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Pilot study of an exercise programme to maintain knee extension muscle strength for older patients during hospitalisation
IRAS ID
252802
Contact name
Christi Deaton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University hospitals NHS Foundation Trust & University of Cambridge
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
In a previous study we demonstrated that on average, people become physically weaker during even a short stay in hospital. This study is a ‘mini’ version of a full study that would test to see if additional physiotherapy exercises undertaken in hospital prevent people getting weaker, and improve their recovery.
The study will compare two different types of physiotherapy exercise. Both exercise programmes involve twice-daily physiotherapy provided by one of the hospital’s physiotherapy assistants, but only one of the two exercise programmes expected to provide benefit. This is on top of the care that people would normally receive, and will last for the first 7 days of their hospital admission (or until they are discharged if this is earlier).
This ‘mini’ version is designed to ensure that all aspects of the study run smoothly before we start a larger study.
Patients will be asked to consent to the study during the first 24 hours of their hospital admission. If patients provide consent, they will undergo a baseline assessment of their functional ability (including testing of their muscle strength) before being randomly assigned to one of the two exercise programmes. We aim to recruit 15 patients to each group (30 in total).
Once randomised patients will be seen twice a day by a physiotherapy assistant who will supervise the exercise programme.
On the day that participants are discharged (or day 7 of their admission if earlier) we will repeat measures of the participants functional ability. Following these measures we will invite participants to be interviewed to discuss their experience of taking part in the study.
Approximately one month after discharge, a researcher will visit the participant to repeat measures of their functional ability at their home.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/EE/0162
Date of REC Opinion
18 Jul 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion