College of Medicine launching $6 million study of physical function in seniors

Penn State College of Medicine has been awarded nearly $6 million from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The funding will be used to study approaches to encourage the use of the SilverSneakers benefits by seniors with osteoarthritis and assess physical functioning and other patient-reported outcomes associated with long-term physical health.

“As nearly half of seniors have osteoarthritis – with osteoarthritis rates rising due to longer life spans – finding long-term solutions to facilitate active lifestyles is key to preserving quality of life in aging adults,” said Liza Rovniak, PhD, MPH, principal investigator and associate professor of medicine and public health sciences at the College of Medicine. “We know that right now, fewer than one-third of seniors who have access to SilverSneakers use their SilverSneakers benefits, and even fewer engage in structured exercise.”

Rovniak and her team will partner with Humana Healthcare Research, a research arm of Humana, to enroll more than 1,450 Medicare Advantage members nationwide who are aged 65 years or over with osteoarthritis, have access to SilverSneakers through their health plan, and have no prior SilverSneakers participation.  Those choosing to enroll will participate in a randomized controlled trial that will compare the effects of proactive care relative to usual care involving the standard SilverSneakers insurance-benefit information provided to seniors. Researchers will follow participants over two years and aim to compare the effects of proactive and usual care in three areas:

• Increasing participation in SilverSneakers exercise programs
• Improving physical, social and psychological outcomes for seniors with osteoarthritis
• Reducing osteoarthritis-related health service use.

To achieve this, researchers will randomly determine how study participants will receive information about SilverSneakers. Some will receive this information through the usual standard of care and others through proactive care. The proactive care approach will include researchers connecting with participants to provide them with information on SilverSneakers and guidance on how to activate benefits and choose exercise classes and programs that are appropriate for them. The proactive approach will also include encouraging partipants’ primary care providers to speak with them about SilverSneakers.

It is believed that the proactive care approach will help seniors with osteoarthritis participate in SilverSneakers and help improve their physical and mental wellbeing. If proactive care leads to long-term positive health outcomes, it may also encourage insurers to fund proactive care interventions.

“If proactive care procedures improve exercise participation and health outcomes while reducing costly health-service use, health insurers could adopt these procedures more widely and help a large number of seniors with osteoarthritis improve the quality of their daily lives,” said Rovniak.

This study was selected through PCORI’s highly competitive review process in which patients, caregivers and other stakeholders join scientists to evaluate proposals.

PCORI is an independent, nonprofit organization authorized by Congress with a mission to fund patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research that provides patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information they need to make better informed health and health care decisions.

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