A recent European Commission report revealed the discrepancies in e-health adoption amongst older people between various European countries (Kubitschke, 2010). Uptake rates, in terms of the percentage of people aged over 65 using e-health technologies, differ for example, for social alarms between around 3% in Germany and the Netherlands, 6-10% the Nordic countries and 15% in the United Kingdom. Even within individual countries there are areas with vastly different adoption rates (Cooney, 2010). Considering that the European population is ageing and the life expectancy at birth is still rising significantly (European Commission, 2011), there is a need for government policy on ageing in place to keep people at home as long as possible and there are chances for producers and providers of ALT solutions to increase their sales. The most important barrier to overcome is the low adoption rate of ALT solutions. Governments, companies and society as a whole need to find out why individuals prefer not to use ALT products and/or services even though they can be seen as potential users.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the feasibility of conducting a randomised controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of a twenty-week power-assisted exercise intervention in people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities and to evaluate the potential beneficial effects of this intervention.DESIGN: Pilot randomised controlled trial.SETTING: A large-scale twenty-four-hour residential facility in the Netherlands.SUBJECTS: Thirty-seven persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities.INTERVENTION: Participants in the intervention group received a power-assisted exercise intervention three times a week for thirty minutes over a twenty-week period. Participants in the control group received care as usual.MAIN MEASURES: Trial feasibility by recruitment process and outcomes completion rates; intervention feasibility by programme compliance rates; potential outcomes by functional abilities, alertness, body composition, muscle tone, oxygen saturation, cardiovascular fitness and quality of life.RESULTS: Thirty-seven participants were recruited ( M age = 32.1, SD = 14.6) and were randomly allocated to intervention ( n = 19) and control ( n = 18) groups. Programme compliance rates ranged from 54.2% to 97.7% with a mean (SD) of 81.5% (13.4). Oxygen saturation significantly increased in the intervention group. Standardised effect sizes on the difference between groups in outcome varied between 0.02 and 0.62.CONCLUSIONS: The power-assisted exercise intervention and the trial design were feasible and acceptable to people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities living in a residential facility. This pilot study suggests that the intervention improves oxygen saturation, but further implementation with the aim of improving other outcomes should be considered with caution.
