Cognitive Frailty in Older Adults: The Role of Technology in Physical Activity Enhancement

Cognitive Frailty in Older Adults: Protocol of a Pilot RCT of the Role of Technology in Physical Activity Enhancement

This study intends to determine if smart watches and mobile phone application prompts can complement physical activity as a preventive intervention by motivating participants to exercise, so as to improve their physical and cognitive outcomes.

The investigators hypothesize that technology will help increase engagement in physical activity for the intervention group relative to the control group and subsequently improve cognitive and physical outcomes.

This study aims to explore the role of technology -- in the form of smart watches and mobile phone application -- in physical activity enhancement on cognitive frailty outcomes. Cognitive frailty is defined here as having both physical frailty and cognitive impairment but does not satisfy criteria for Major Neurocognitive Disorder. The investigators postulate that for older adults, such technology will help increase engagement in physical activity with subsequent improvement in cognitive and physical outcomes at follow up. This is with the aim of preventing this particular group from deteriorating to cognitive frailty because of the accompanying increased risk for adverse outcomes and morbidity.

This pilot study will be a randomized control trial with 2 treatment arms. Assessments will be done prior to and following the intervention period. During the period of intervention, the wearable will act as a tracking device and will be paired with a mobile application to issue prompts to the participant when necessary. The independent variable explored in the study is the use of the wearable while the levels of physical and cognitive improvements are the dependent measures. These will be tracked at baseline, 3 months and 6 months. Additionally, the mediating variable measured is the levels of physical activity to ensure that the proposed outcomes are affected through an increased level of physical activity encouraged by the use of the device.

If innovations like technology and the role of self-management proves efficacious, the future of healthcare in the context of a rapidly aging population will be more sustainable. Furthermore, this supporting role of technology in positive behavioral modification amongst older adults can have a multitude of applications in subsequent healthcare interventions.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Older adults aged 60 to 85 years

Exclusion Criteria:

• Engages in vigorous exercises as determined by having more than 0 minutes of vigorous exercise on the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ).
• Has medical contraindications for exercising, including but not limited to: physical disabilities or heart conditions where the primary doctor disallows exercising at moderate intensity.
• Does not own an Android phone which can support at least a version 6.0 Operating System