Needs assessment in community-dwelling older adults toward digital interventions to promote physical activity: Cross-sectional survey study.

Background: Tackling physical inactivity represents a key global public health challenge. Strategies to increase physical activity (PA) are therefore warranted. Despite the rising availability of digital interventions (DIs), which offer tremendous potential for PA promotion, there has been inadequate attention to the special needs of older adults. Objective: The aim was to investigate community-dwelling older adults' needs, requirements, and preferences toward DIs to promote PA. Methods: The target population of this cross-sectional study was community-dwelling older adults (≥60 years old) within German-speaking Switzerland. Potential respondents were informed about the study and sent a link to a self-developed and self-administered online survey by our cooperating institutions. Results: Overall, 922 respondents who completed the online survey were included in the final analysis. The mean age of the sample was 72 years (SD 6.4, range 60-98). The preferred delivery mode of DIs to promote PA was a website (428/922, 46.4%) and 80.3% (740/922) preferred video-based structures. Most respondents expressed the need for personal access, personal goals, personal messages, and a personal contact in case of problems or questions (585/817, 71.6%; 546/811, 67.3%; 536/822, 65.2%; 536/822, 65.2%). Memory training, psychological wellbeing, and nutrition were mainly rated as relevant additional content of DIs to promote PA (690/849, 81.2%; 661/845, 78.2%, 619/849, 72.9%). Conclusion: Community-dwelling older adults may be willing to use DIs to promote PA in the long term, but this study identified particular needs and requirements in terms of design, technological realization, delivery mode, support, and individualization/personalization among the sample. Our results can inform future developments of DIs to promote PA specifically tailored to older adults. However, caution is warranted in interpreting the findings due to the sample's high PA and education levels.

Changes in socioeconomic resources and mental health after the second COVID-19 wave (2020-2021): a longitudinal study in Switzerland.

BACKGROUND: During the 2020/2021 winter, the labour market was under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Changes in socioeconomic resources during this period could have influenced individual mental health. This association may have been mitigated or exacerbated by subjective risk perceptions, such as perceived risk of getting infected with SARS-CoV-2 or perception of the national economic situation. Therefore, we aimed to determine if changes in financial resources and employment situation during and after the second COVID-19 wave were prospectively associated with depression, anxiety and stress, and whether perceptions of the national economic situation and of the risk of getting infected modified this association. METHODS: One thousand seven hundred fifty nine participants from a nation-wide population-based eCohort in Switzerland were followed between November 2020 and September 2021. Financial resources and employment status were assessed twice (Nov2020-Mar2021, May-Jul 2021). Mental health was assessed after the second measurement of financial resources and employment status, using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). We modelled DASS-21 scores with linear regression, adjusting for demographics, health status, social relationships and changes in workload, and tested interactions with subjective risk perceptions. RESULTS: We observed scores above thresholds for normal levels for 16% (95%CI = 15-18) of participants for depression, 8% (95%CI = 7-10) for anxiety, and 10% (95%CI = 9-12) for stress. Compared to continuously comfortable or sufficient financial resources, continuously precarious or insufficient resources were associated with worse scores for all outcomes. Increased financial resources were associated with higher anxiety. In the working-age group, shifting from full to part-time employment was associated with higher stress and anxiety. Perceiving the Swiss economic situation as worrisome was associated with higher anxiety in participants who lost financial resources or had continuously precarious or insufficient resources. CONCLUSION: This study confirms the association of economic stressors and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic and highlights the exacerbating role of subjective risk perception on this association.

Connecting real-world digital mobility assessment to clinical outcomes for regulatory and clinical endorsement-the Mobilise-D study protocol.

BACKGROUND: The development of optimal strategies to treat impaired mobility related to ageing and chronic disease requires better ways to detect and measure it. Digital health technology, including body worn sensors, has the potential to directly and accurately capture real-world mobility. Mobilise-D consists of 34 partners from 13 countries who are working together to jointly develop and implement a digital mobility assessment solution to demonstrate that real-world digital mobility outcomes have the potential to provide a better, safer, and quicker way to assess, monitor, and predict the efficacy of new interventions on impaired mobility. The overarching objective of the study is to establish the clinical validity of digital outcomes in patient populations impacted by mobility challenges, and to support engagement with regulatory and health technology agencies towards acceptance of digital mobility assessment in regulatory and health technology assessment decisions. METHODS/DESIGN: The Mobilise-D clinical validation study is a longitudinal observational cohort study that will recruit 2400 participants from four clinical cohorts. The populations of the Innovative Medicine Initiative-Joint Undertaking represent neurodegenerative conditions (Parkinson's Disease), respiratory disease (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), neuro-inflammatory disorder (Multiple Sclerosis), fall-related injuries, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, and frailty (Proximal Femoral Fracture). In total, 17 clinical sites in ten countries will recruit participants who will be evaluated every six months over a period of two years. A wide range of core and cohort specific outcome measures will be collected, spanning patient-reported, observer-reported, and clinician-reported outcomes as well as performance-based outcomes (physical measures and cognitive/mental measures). Daily-living mobility and physical capacity will be assessed directly using a wearable device. These four clinical cohorts were chosen to obtain generalizable clinical findings, including diverse clinical, cultural, geographical, and age representation. The disease cohorts include a broad and heterogeneous range of subject characteristics with varying chronic care needs, and represent different trajectories of mobility disability. DISCUSSION: The results of Mobilise-D will provide longitudinal data on the use of digital mobility outcomes to identify, stratify, and monitor disability. This will support the development of widespread, cost-effective access to optimal clinical mobility management through personalised healthcare. Further, Mobilise-D will provide evidence-based, direct measures which can be endorsed by regulatory agencies and health technology assessment bodies to quantify the impact of disease-modifying interventions on mobility. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN12051706.

Joys or Sorrows of Parenting During the COVID-19 Lockdown: A Scoping Review.

Objectives: The aim of this scoping review was to map out the existing evidence of the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on parents of children and adolescents. We sought to: 1) identify parenting domains that were particularly affected by lockdown measures, 2) describe the challenges and opportunities of lockdown measures in these domains, and 3) define protective and exacerbating factors modulating the effect of lockdown measures on parents. Methods: We identified five main domains investigated in the context of parenting during the early COVID-19 lockdown derived from 84 studies: health and wellbeing, parental role, couple functioning, family and social relationships, and paid and unpaid work. For each domain, we listed challenges and opportunities, as well as discriminant factors. Results: The lockdown impacted all five different but interconnected domains, introduced new roles in parents' lives, and particularly affected women and vulnerable populations. Conclusion: This scoping review highlights the importance of approaching public health policymaking from a social justice perspective. Such an approach argues for social and public health policies to promote health accounting for its social, economic, political, and commercial determinants.

A novel approach to increase physical activity in older adults in the community using citizen science: a mixed-methods study.

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to implement a novel, community-based physical activity (PA) intervention in a Swiss town with active participation of elderly participants and to evaluate its effectiveness, feasibility, acceptability and sustainability. METHODS: The CAPACITY intervention combined important determinants of PA, used smartphone apps to provide feedback/facilitate interaction, and followed a citizen science approach to enable participants to organize walking groups. We targeted persons > 60 years from Wetzikon. Assessments took place at baseline and after 6 months, during this intervention period, and 11 months after step-wise withdrawal of the study team. RESULTS: Twenty-nine persons were included in the study; 25 conducted 6-month follow-up. They had a significant increase in moderate-to-vigorous PA (p = 0.046) but not in daily steps (p = 0.331). After the intervention period, key participants took over organization, independently organized monthly get-togethers, added new walking routes and continuously recruit new participants. Eleven months after withdrawal of the study team, 61 people regularly walk in groups together. CONCLUSIONS: The novel CAPACITY intervention was successfully implemented, transferred to participants and is now self-sustainable for almost 1 year in the community.

Effects of a long-term home-based exercise training programme using minimal equipment vs. usual care in COPD patients: a study protocol for two multicentre randomised controlled trials (HOMEX-1 and HOMEX-2 trials).

BACKGROUND: Exercise training is an important component of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) programmes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but the great majority of COPD patients who would benefit from PR never follow such programmes or fail to maintain exercise training after PR completion. Against this background, we developed an exercise training programme that requires minimal equipment and can be implemented long-term in the patient's home-setting. The aims of the HOMEX-1 and HOMEX-2 trials are to assess the effectiveness of this home-based exercise training programme in two groups of COPD patients over the course of one year: patients who have completed PR (HOMEX-1 trial) and patients who did not enrol in existing PR programmes within the last two years (HOMEX-2 trial). METHODS: HOMEX-1 and HOMEX-2 are multicentre, parallel group, randomised controlled trials. For both trials each, it is planned to include 120 study participants with a diagnosis of COPD. Participants will be randomised with a 1:1 ratio into the intervention group or the control group (usual care/no intervention). The intervention consists of minimal-equipment exercise training elements with progressive level of intensity, conducted by the participant during six days per week and instructed and coached by a trained health care professional during three home visits and regular telephone calls during one year. Primary outcome is change in dyspnoea (domain of Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire) from baseline to 12-months follow-up. Secondary outcomes are change in dyspnoea over the course of the year (assessed at 3, 6 and 12 month) and change in functional exercise capacity, physical activity, health-related quality of life, health status, exacerbations and symptoms from baseline to 12 months follow-up. In addition, explanatory, safety and cost-effectiveness outcomes will be assessed. We will conduct intention-to-treat analyses separately per trial and per protocol analyses as sensitivity analyses. DISCUSSION: The HOMEX-1 and HOMEX-2 trials assess a novel intervention that provides an innovative way of making exercise training as accessible as possible for COPD patients. If the intervention proves to be effective long-term, it will fill the gap of providing an easily accessible and feasible intervention so that more COPD patients can follow an exercise programme. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: HOMEX-1 NCT03461887 (registration date: March 12, 2018; retrospectively registered); HOMEX-2 NCT03654092 (registration date: August 31, 2018).

Congruency of diabetes care with the Chronic Care Model in different Swiss health care organisations from the patients' perspective: a cross sectional study.

QUESTIONS UNDER STUDY: Patients with chronic illnesses like diabetes mellitus benefit from care following the concept of the Chronic Care Model. To improve quality and to be responsive to patients' needs reliable data on patients' view of care in different healthcare settings are required. We evaluated the congruency of diabetes care with the Chronic Care Model between managed and non-managed care organisations from a patient's perspective. METHODS: We compared type 2 diabetes patients from non-managed care with a managed care organisation in Switzerland. We evaluated differences between these settings with the Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care 5A questionnaire (PACIC 5A; scale from 1-5) that combines the PACIC and the 5A-approach of physicians' counselling. RESULTS: 374 patients completed the PACIC 5A (326 from non-managed care settings, 48 from managed care). The adjusted average PACIC summary score was 3.18 in the non-managed care compared to 3.49 in the managed care sample (p = 0.046). Managed care patients scored significantly higher in the subscales goal setting (2.86 vs 3.29; p = 0.015), advice (3.23 vs 3.64; p = 0.014), assist (2.98 vs 3.44; p = 0.016) and arrange (2.50 vs 2.88; p = 0.049). CONCLUSIONS: Our data from different health care settings suggest that managed care is recognised by type 2 diabetes patients as care that is more congruent with the Chronic Care Model and offers more intense behavioural counselling and self-management support compared with usual primary care in Switzerland. Future research should evaluate larger, more comparable patient groups.

[Vocational training for general practitioners-comparing Switzerland with other European countries]. / Weiterbildung zum Hausarzt - ein europäischer Vergleich.

As many other European countries, Switzerland is facing a shortage of young general practitioners (GPs). This review summarizes and compares the different characteristics of vocational training programs in Switzerland and other European countries concerning their duration, learning objectives and setting. Countries with a GP-centered healthcare system offer highly structured training programs tailored to the everyday work in general practice, whereas vocational training programs in countries where patients have unlimited access to specialized care are less differentiated. Today, the vocational training of Swiss GPs lacks topically focused learning objectives and seems to be rather underdeveloped when compared to foreign programs. Particularly with regard to the duration and funding of practice-based training periods spent in GP surgeries, Switzerland still has a great development potential.

Patient-reported physical activity questionnaires: a systematic review of content and format.

BACKGROUND: Many patients with chronic illness are limited in their physical activities. This systematic review evaluates the content and format of patient-reported outcome (PRO) questionnaires that measure physical activity in elderly and chronically ill populations. METHODS: Questionnaires were identified by a systematic literature search of electronic databases (Medline, Embase, PsychINFO & CINAHL), hand searches (reference sections and PROQOLID database) and expert input. A qualitative analysis was conducted to assess the content and format of the questionnaires and a Venn diagram was produced to illustrate this. Each stage of the review process was conducted by at least two independent reviewers. RESULTS: 104 questionnaires fulfilled our criteria. From these, 182 physical activity domains and 1965 items were extracted. Initial qualitative analysis of the domains found 11 categories. Further synthesis of the domains found 4 broad categories: 'physical activity related to general activities and mobility', 'physical activity related to activities of daily living', 'physical activity related to work, social or leisure time activities', and '(disease-specific) symptoms related to physical activity'. The Venn diagram showed that no questionnaires covered all 4 categories and that the '(disease-specific) symptoms related to physical activity' category was often not combined with the other categories. CONCLUSIONS: A large number of questionnaires with a broad range of physical activity content were identified. Although the content could be broadly organised, there was no consensus on the content and format of physical activity PRO questionnaires in elderly and chronically ill populations. Nevertheless, this systematic review will help investigators to select a physical activity PRO questionnaire that best serves their research question and context.

The German version of the Assessment of Chronic Illness Care: instrument translation and cultural adaptation.

BACKGROUND: In Switzerland, there is a dearth of information on the extent to which patients with chronic illnesses receive care congruent with the Chronic Care Model (CCM). To drive quality improvement programmes, it is necessary to have practical assessment tools in the country's own language to evaluate the delivery of CCM activities. METHODS: German translation and adaptation of the original Assessment of Chronic Illness Care (ACIC). We followed a sequential forward and backward translation approach. In a multidisciplinary committee review the original English version and the translations were compared, instructions and formats modified and cross-cultural equivalences verified. The second version was pre-tested and multidisciplinary group discussion led to the final version which aimed to create a comprehensive culturally adapted translation capturing the original idea of the items rather than a direct one to one translation. RESULTS: Difficulties encountered during the translation process consisted in the difference of health care settings and health care organization in Switzerland and USA.The adapted German version was delivered to a managed care organization in the city of Zurich to test the initial use for diabetes care. The average ACIC subscale scores were: organization of the health care delivery system: mean (m) = 7.31 (SD = 0.79), community linkages: m = 3.78 (SD = 1.09), self-management support: m = 4.88 (SD = 1.21), decision support: m = 4.79 (SD = 1.16), delivery system design: m = 5.56 (SD = 1.28) and clinical information systems: m = 4.50 (SD = 2.69). Overall, the ACIC subscale scores were comparable with the scores of the original testing. CONCLUSION: After cultural adaptations the German version of the ACIC is applicable as a tool to guide quality improvement in chronic illness care in German speaking countries in Europe.

The chronic care for age-related macular degeneration study (CHARMED): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Neovascular age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in people 50 years of age or older in the developed world. As in other chronic diseases, several effective treatments are available, but in clinical daily practice there is an evidence performance gap. The Chronic Care Model represents an evidence-based framework for the care of chronically ill patients and aims at closing that gap. However, no data are available regarding patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration. METHODS/DESIGN: CHARMED is a multicenter randomized controlled trial. The study challenges the hypothesis that the implementation of core elements of the Chronic Care Model (patient empowerment, delivering evidence based information, clinical information system, reminder system with structured follow up and frequent monitoring) via a specially trained Chronic Care Coach in Swiss centres for neovascular age-related macular degeneration results in better visual acuity (primary outcome) and an increased disease specific quality of life (secondary outcome) in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration. According to the power calculation, a total sample size of 352 patients is needed (drop out rate of 25%). 14 specialised medical doctors from leading ophtalmologic centres in Switzerland will include 25 patients. In each centre, a Chronic Care Coach will provide disease specific care according to the Chronic Care Model for intervention group. Patients from the control group will be treated as usual. Baseline measurements will be taken in month III - XII, starting in March 2011. Follow-up data will be collected after 6 months and 1 year. DISCUSSION: Multiple studies have shown that implementing Chronic Care Model elements improve clinical outcomes as well as process parameters in different chronic diseases as osteoarthritis, depression or e.g. the cardiovascular risk profile of diabetes patients. This study will be the first to assess this approach in neovascular age-related macular degeneration. If our hypothesis will be confirmed, the implementation of this approach in routine care for patients with with neovascular age-related macular degeneration should be considered. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current controlled trials ISRCTN32507927.

Assessment of Chronic Illness Care with the German version of the ACIC in different primary care settings in Switzerland.

BACKGROUND: In Switzerland the extent to which patients with chronic illnesses receive care congruent with the Chronic Care Model (CCM) is unknown. METHODS: According to guidelines we translated the Assessment of Chronic Illness Care (ACIC) into German (G-ACIC). We tested the instrument in different primary care settings and compared subscales with the original testing. RESULTS: Difficulties encountered during the translation process consisted in the difference of health care settings in Switzerland and USA. However initial testing showed the G-ACIC to be a suitable instrument. The average ACIC subscale scores in Swiss managed care (MC)-, group (GP)- and single handed practices (SP) were higher for MC practices than for group- and single handed practices: Organization of the healthcare delivery system: MC mean (m) = 6.80 (SD 1.55), GP m = 5.42 (SD 0.99), SP m = 4.60 (SD 2.07); community linkages: MC m = 4.19 (SD 1.47), GP m = 4.83 (SD 1.81), SP m = 3.10 (SD 2.12); self-management support: MC m = 4.96 (SD 1.13), GP m = 4.73 (SD 1.40), SP m = 4.43 (SD 1.34); decision support: MC m = 4.75 (SD 1.06); GP m = 4.20 (SD 0.87), SP m = 3.25 (SD 1.59); delivery system design: MC m = 5.98 (SD 1.61), GP m = 5.05 (SD 2.05), SP m = 3.86 (SD 1.51) and clinical information systems: MC m = 4.34 (SD = 2.49), GP m = 2.06 (SD 1.35), SP m = 3.20 (SD 1.57). CONCLUSIONS: The G-ACIC is applicable and useful for comparing different health care settings in German speaking countries. Managed care organizations seem to implement the different components of the CCM in a greater extend than group and single handed practices. However, much room exists for further improvement.