NCT03035682

The Impact of a mHealth Application on Outpatient Physical Therapy HEP Adherence and Outcomes: A RCT

The Impact of a mHealth Application on Outpatient Physical Therapy HEP Adherence and Outcomes: A Randomized Clinical Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 104 (actual)
• Sponsor: Aultman Health Foundation · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 100 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to determine the impact a mobile health application has on adherence to a physical therapy home exercise program and its effect on functional outcomes.

Detailed description

Outpatient physical therapy is an integral aspect in combating the impairment and dysfunction associated with musculoskeletal injuries. Healthcare and insurance restrictions are leading to reduced clinic visits, encouraging efficient and effective treatments and focusing a greater demand on education, proactive wellness and home exercise maintenance. Home exercise prescription has long been a fundamental aspect to a physical therapy routine or regimen. It is well established that exercise protocols can positively impact pain, fitness levels, physical function and measures of life quality (Forkan, Pumper, Smyth, Wirkkala, A Ciol, \& Shumway-Cook, 2006). It is also recognized that treatment outcomes may be negatively impacted by non-adherence to the prescribed exercise recommendation in rehabilitation (Holden, Haywood, Portia, Gee, \& Mclean, 2014). Research historically suggests that levels of non-adherence to exercise prescription range from 50-70% (Bassett, 2003; Sluijs, Kok, \& van der Zee, 1993), and likely increase as time passes. Investigating non-adherence demonstrates a myriad of influencing factors. These factors can be characterized as motivators and barriers. With the explosion of mobile communications access and increasing number of active device users, healthcare is embarking on the concept of mobile health management. Mobile health interventions have been found to have a positive impact in the arenas of medication compliance, weight loss, chronic disease management and postoperative complication (Lee, 2016; Ronghua, Li, (2015).The implementation of a mobile health application in physical therapy outpatient management has not been well established. It is time to investigate the impact of using a mobile health application on a prescribed physical therapy treatment regimen for the enhancement of HEP adherence and functional outcome assessment.

Conditions

• Orthopedic Disorder
• Musculoskeletal Injury

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Augmented Media Group	The intervention group will receive traditional PT services deemed clinically appropriate via examination plus home exercise prescription augmented via a mobile health application. The augmented media group will receive digital exercise prescription via a mobile health application source (Physitrack) that includes: high definition video and pictures, education material and written instruction, reminder notification and in-app logging of completion.
OTHER	Traditional Group	The Traditional Group will receive traditional PT services deemed clinically appropriate via examination plus traditional home exercise prescription.

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-01-23
• Primary completion: 2018-07-23
• Completion: 2019-12-12
• First posted: 2017-01-30
• Last updated: 2020-08-25

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States