Table 8 OPERA: physical activity to prevent depression in residential homes
From: Heterogeneity in pragmatic randomised trials: sources and management
Patients: Care home residents aged ≥ 65 years Centres: Care homes from Coventry and Warwickshire and northeast London Intervention: Depression awareness programme delivered by physiotherapists, plus physical activity programme (see below) Control: Depression awareness programme for care home staff Outcome: Prevalence of depression Design: Two parallel-group cluster randomised trial, clusters being residential care homes | |
Intervention | “On the basis of the assessment the physiotherapist determined a plan of action for the intervention programme elements. The first was a bespoke physical activity programme tailored to each resident and aimed at increasing the level of habitual physical activity, developed in co-operation with the physical activity champion/senior carers. This included the provision of mobility aids, advice on footwear, and manual handling tips to enable mobility. The second was to determine the appropriate level of exercise activities for the group exercise programme.” |
Process analysis | “Alongside the main study we carried out a process evaluation and long-term follow-up using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to explore the process of implementing the study in a care home setting to develop a set of transferable principles regarding both the OPERA depression awareness training and the OPERA ‘whole-home’ exercise intervention to inform its implementation on a wider scale. We did independent observations of the process of obtaining consent from participants. We did focus groups and interviews with key informants about the process of consent in care home studies.” |