NCT06886906

Exploring the Acute and Dynamic Relationships Between Movement and Pain in Older Adults With Musculoskeletal Pain

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 40 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Indiana University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 55 Years – 85 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of this research study is to evaluate the effect of brief bouts of intermittent walking on bodily pain, pain during movement, and how the body adapts to musculoskeletal pain in older adults.

Detailed description

The purpose of this study is to determine whether exposure to acute sitting compared to sitting interrupted with brief bouts of light intensity walking exerts short term effects on resting pain, endogenous pain modulation measured via quantitative sensory testing (QST), and movement-evoked pain (MEP) in older adults. Participants will be asked to complete two study sessions, with the first study session lasting 3 hours and the second study session lasting 2.5 hours. All sessions will take place in the National Institute of Sport Fitness, where the Physical Activity and Pain laboratory is located. The first session will include the following procedures in the following order: informed consent process, healthy history for screening purposes, quantitative sensory testing (QST), 6-minute walk test, completion of questionnaires, QST, experimental conditions of either 1 hour of sitting or 1 hour of sitting with bouts of light intensity walking, QST, and the 30-second chair stand test. Session 2 will take place at least 7 days after session 1 and will be identical except for the informed consent and screening will be replaced by questionnaires and the experimental condition will consist of the one not performed in session 1. Participants will be asked to take their medications at the same time prior to each study visit and the investigators will assess medications taken the day of each visit prior to the visit.

Conditions

• Older People
• Pain

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Intermittent light walking	The participant will remain seated throughout the 1 hour experimental period. During this 1-hour period, participants will complete six bouts of 2.5-minutes of light intensity walking. Overall, the bouts will occur on six occasions, providing a total of 15 minutes of light intensity activity.
BEHAVIORAL	uninterrupted sitting	The participant will remain seated throughout the experimental period and will be instructed to minimize excessive movement, only rising from the chair to void. This experimental condition is designed to mimic prolonged uninterrupted sedentary behavior.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-11-13
• Primary completion: 2026-08-01
• Completion: 2026-08-01
• First posted: 2025-03-20
• Last updated: 2026-04-17

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States