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Iowa State lands $1M to help older Americans ‘Walk with Ease’
‘Falls are the number one trauma here in the emergency room’
Vanessa Miller
Oct. 10, 2022 7:36 am
About 36 million falls annually are reported nationally among older adults — resulting in about 3 million emergency room trips and 32,000 deaths, and Iowa State University recently landed $1 million to help reduce the risk.
Over the next three years, ISU researchers will use the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant — funded in September — to tap and build on efforts of a Walk with Ease program, developed by the Arthritis Foundation to curtail symptoms and improve overall health by incorporating activity into everyday life.
A typical Walk with Ease group meets three times a week over six weeks for a 10- to 40-minute walk, including warm ups and cool downs. Past research has shown participants experience some improvement in pain, fatigue, stiffness, strength and balance, according to Iowa State News Service.
With the $1 million grant, researchers with Iowa State’s Translational Research Network — for the first time — will directly evaluate the program’s potential for cutting the risk and incidence of falling.
Researchers will look, specifically, at effects of incorporating individualized physical therapy exercises into group sessions, and they’ll explore motivational ways to get participants to follow through with exercises and scale up their activity.
“The focus in the new randomized controlled trial will be to determine if personalized exercise prescriptions from physical therapists would improve the effectiveness and lead to stronger outcomes,” ISU kinesiology professor Greg Welk, who’s coordinating the project, told The Gazette.
“A key advantage of the (Walk with Ease) model is that it provides structure, accountability and social opportunities,” Welk said. “By coming to group sessions, the participants are more likely to adhere to their exercise program and more likely to get their recommended daily walking.”
The research aims to produce a feasibility study for scaling up the program; inform training materials; and produce a model communities can replicate — both across Iowa, the region and nation.
But before more broadly disseminating the Walk with Ease program, Welk said researchers want to better understand the most effective strategies.
A collaboration with the McFarland Clinic and Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames — the research will have physical therapists assess individual participant risks and develop personalized exercises for their warm-up and cool-down routines.
It will build in accountability, support and motivation as, “Individuals trying to follow home exercise prescriptions may not remember how to do recommended exercises or may not have the motivation to do them regularly,” said Welk.
Among the motivational tools that researchers will give participants include access to an online portal — offering reminders, tracking, and goal-setting opportunities.
“We will be supplementing this portal with training on habit formation, which is an important skill for long-term adherence,” Welk said.
Iowa State has been trying different and enhanced versions of the Walk with Ease program since 2019 — including a virtual version offering support over the phone and an in-person group that walks together. Groups can meet three days a week for six weeks or twice a week for nine weeks.
Participants must be at least 60 years old, able to stand for at least 10 straight minutes, and show they can safely exercise, among other things.
“There’s already good evidence showing the original Walk with Ease program can help people,” ISU graduate student Nick Lamoureux, with the ISU Translational Research Network, told ISU News earlier this year. “We’re working to optimize its effects and make it more accessible.”
The CDC reports older adult falls cost about $50 billion in medical expenses annually — with Medicare and Medicaid paying about three-quarters of expenses. In Ames, Mary Greeley’s emergency department last year received 620-plus trauma patients injured in falls — most of whom were 60-plus, trauma program manager Tricia Colman told ISU News.
“Falls are the number one trauma here in the emergency room,” she said. “That is why we felt it so important to join forces with Greg Welk’s team to help out the Ames community and work to decrease the number of falls we are seeing.”
Participants can sign up on a rolling basis, as can volunteers.
To date, ISU has done pilot testing on 40 to 50 participants — tapping 10 to 15 students as leaders or volunteers.
“The involvement of students provides mutual benefits as they learn research and health promotion skills while also serving and assisting older adults with the programming,” Welk said.
Those interested in enrolling or learning more can visit: https://www.walkwitheaseisu.org/
Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.
Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com