Activity Based Locomotor Exercise PrOgram-Wait-list controllEd Research

ABLE POWER - Activity Based Locomotor Exercise PrOgram: Wait-list controllEd Research

At Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute, rehabilitation for individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) is being led by the NIH funded NeuroRecovery Network (NRN) Community Fitness and Wellness Program through the Activity-Based Locomotor Exercise Program (ABLE). Any individual with a spinal cord injury who is eligible for the ABLE Program is eligible for participation in the NeuroRecovery Network Research Project (NRN). The purpose of the ABLE POWER Study is to evaluate the effectiveness of activity-based locomotor exercise programs in individuals with SCI through a wait-list controlled design. Individuals who have a spinal cord injury and are on the wait list for ABLE will be enrolled in this project for a year while they wait for an opening in the ABLE program. Changes that occur while participants are on the wait list will be compared to changes that occur after they are enrolled in ABLE. A difference in the rate of improvement after enrollment in the intervention would be attributed to the ABLE intervention. Individuals participating in the ABLE program will receive the ABLE intervention regardless of participation in the ABLE POWER research study. In this design, there will be two measures in the year prior to enrollment in ABLE, and two measures in the year after enrollment, and the two time periods would be compared to the data collected at enrollment into ABLE.

Inclusion Criteria:

• The participant must be eligible for the Neurorecovery Network (NRN) Study. Eligibility criteria for the NRN study are as follows: The participant must have a spinal cord injury, at any spinal level or time since injury. Individuals with uncontrolled diabetes, uncontrolled seizures, uncontrolled autonomic dysreflexia, uncontrolled hypotension, unstable angina, history of heart attack, osteoporosis, or weight of more than 275 pounds (due to the weight limit of the partial weight supported treadmill system) are not eligible.
• The participant must be on the ABLE wait list.

Exclusion Criteria:

• The participant must NOT have previously participated in ABLE.