Effectiveness of telehealth in preventive care: a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial of tele-exercise programme involving older people with possible sarcopenia or at risk of fall.

BACKGROUND: Continuous loss of muscle mass and strength are the consequences of the ageing process, which increase the risk of falls among older people. Falls can lead to severe consequences such as bone fractures and hampered physical and psychological well-being. Regular exercise is the key to reversing muscle atrophy and relieving sarcopenia. However, the frailty of older people and the recent COVID-19 pandemic may affect their confidence to leave home to attend classes in the community. A feasible and effective alternative should be explored. METHODS: The primary objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of tele-exercise (TE) in relation to physical functioning and exercise adherence among community-dwelling older people at risk of falls in comparison with a community-based group (CB). The secondary objective includes evaluating older people's experience with tele-exercise, emphasizing their psychological welfare, social well-being, and acceptance of the telehealth approach. The design, conduct, and report follow the SPIRIT guidelines (Standard Protocol Items: recommended items to address in a Clinical Trial Protocol and Related Documents). Older people will be recruited from 10 local community centres in Hong Kong and randomly allocated into two groups. All participants will attend the exercise training 3 days per week for 3 months but the mode of delivery will differ, either online as the tele-exercise group (TE) or face-to-face as the community-based group (CB). The outcome measures include muscle strength, physical function, exercise adherence and dropout rate, psychological and social well-being will be assessed at the baseline, and the 3rd, 6th and 12th month. Some participants will be invited to attend focus group interviews to evaluate their overall experience of the tele-exercise training. DISCUSSION: Tele-exercise reduces the barriers to exercise, such as time constraints, inaccessibility to facilities, and the fear of frail older people leaving their homes. Promoting an online home-based exercise programme for older people can encourage them to engage in regular physical activity and increase their exercise adherence even when remaining at home. The use of telehealth can potentially result in savings in cost and time. The final findings will provide insights on delivering exercise via telehealth to older people and propose an exercise delivery and maintenance model for future practice. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ( https://www.chictr.org.cn/hvshowprojectEN.html?id=219002&v=1.1 ), registration number: ChiCTR2200063370. Registered on 5 September 2022.

Topical Fish Oil Application Coupling with Therapeutic Ultrasound Improves Tendon Healing.

Fish oil has been shown to promote collagen synthesis, and hence, connective tissue healing. Therapeutic ultrasound is commonly used to treat soft tissue injuries. This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect of topical fish oil on the management of Achilles tendon rupture, comparing normal therapeutic ultrasound with a combination of ultrasound and fish oil. Eighty-five Sprague-Dawley rats underwent surgical hemitenotomy of the right medial Achilles tendon. The rats received daily treatment of either topical placebo ointment (control group [CON]), topical fish oil (FO), therapeutic ultrasound (US) or ultrasound with fish oil as the coupling medium (FU). The treatment started on post-surgical day 2 over a 2-wk or 4-wk period. On days 15 and 29, the rats were sacrificed and their Achilles tendons were tested for structural stiffness, ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and energy absorption capacity. At 2 wk, only US showed higher normalized UTS compared with CON (p < 0.05). At 4 wk, both US and FU demonstrated better UTS (p < 0.05), while both FO and FU had improved in structural stiffness (p < 0.05). Four wk of treatment with ultrasound using fish oil as coupling medium showed improvement in both structural stiffness and UTS (p < 0.05).