Photovoice for Spinal Cord Injury to Prevent Falls

NCT ID: NCT04864262

Last Updated: 2024-05-09

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 34 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2021-09-27
• Study Completion Date: 2023-09-30

Brief Summary

Falls is a health crisis that costs health care systems billions of dollars each year. This crisis is especially relevant for people living with spinal cord injury (SCI) as most of these people will fall at least once per year. Falls can cause injury and a fear of falling, which often causes people to restrict their mobility and daily activities. Despite its importance, fall prevention for people with SCI is understudied, and as a result, there is a lack of treatments to address their high fall risk. We will evaluate a new treatment for fall prevention. Photovoice is a method that uses photographs and dialogue to share experiences, understand an issue and promote positive change. Specifically, we aim to evaluate the effects of photovoice on confidence related to balance and falls, occurrence of falls, participation in daily activities and quality of life among people living with SCI. We also aim to understand participants' experiences with photovoice as a fall prevention program. To achieve these aims, 40 individuals living with SCI will participate in this study. Participants will complete a six-week photovoice program that involves photo assignments, individual interviews and group meetings. The program will be led by a person with SCI and a member of the research team with a background in physical or occupational therapy or kinesiology. Questionnaires will be used throughout the study to measure confidence, participation and quality of life. The occurrence of falls will be tracked for 12 weeks before and after the photovoice program. At the end of the study, each participant's experiences with photovoice will be collected through interviews. The proposed research will address a critical gap in SCI rehabilitation, namely effective fall prevention, to improve well-being after SCI. The research findings will inform the need for, and design of, a larger clinical trial, and has the potential to transform fall prevention after SCI.

The data sharing plan includes sharing study-related information with people living with spinal cord injury. Dissemination activities targeting this group will be developed with input from study participants (e.g., photos may be converted to printed and online art displays and shared through community SCI organizations). Dissemination initiatives will also target health care administrators and rehabilitation clinicians. Study information will be shared with the professional associations representing these groups. To reach researchers in the SCI rehabilitation field, study findings will be presented at academic conferences and in rehabilitation-focused journals.

Conditions

Spinal Cord Injuries

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NA
• Intervention Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Photovoice

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Photovoice

Intervention Type: OTHER

Photovoice is a method that uses photographs and dialogue to share experiences, understand an issue and promote positive change. Group meetings will be held four times throughout the photovoice intervention. The goals of the group meetings are to share knowledge about falls and fall prevention, identify commonalities in the issues raised by the participants, and discuss ways in which these issues could be addressed, both at individual and societal levels. For two photo assignments, participants will be asked to take 4-6 pictures for an assigned question. The question for photo assignment #1 will be 'What decreases your likelihood of falling?' The question for photo assignment #2 will be 'How do you reduce the risk of falling so that you can participate in meaningful activities?' Following each photo assignment, participants will complete an individual semi-structured interview with the peer mentor and the research trainee, who will have a background in physical or occupational therapy.

Interventions

Photovoice

Photovoice is a method that uses photographs and dialogue to share experiences, understand an issue and promote positive change. Group meetings will be held four times throughout the photovoice intervention. The goals of the group meetings are to share knowledge about falls and fall prevention, identify commonalities in the issues raised by the participants, and discuss ways in which these issues could be addressed, both at individual and societal levels. For two photo assignments, participants will be asked to take 4-6 pictures for an assigned question. The question for photo assignment #1 will be 'What decreases your likelihood of falling?' The question for photo assignment #2 will be 'How do you reduce the risk of falling so that you can participate in meaningful activities?' Following each photo assignment, participants will complete an individual semi-structured interview with the peer mentor and the research trainee, who will have a background in physical or occupational therapy.

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

1) traumatic or non-traumatic, non-progressive SCI >12 months ago; 2) American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS) rating A-D; 3) ≥18 years old; 4) community-dwelling; 5) experienced >1 fall since sustaining a SCI; 6) free of other conditions besides SCI that affect balance (e.g., vestibular disorder); 7) understand spoken English; and 8) have access and ability to use the internet

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University Health Network, Toronto

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Kristin Musselman

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

KITE-Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, UHN

Toronto, , Canada

Countries

Canada

References

Sessford JD, Chan K, Kaiser A, Singh H, Munce S, Alavinia M, Musselman KE. Protocol for a single group, mixed methods study investigating the efficacy of photovoice to improve self-efficacy related to balance and falls for spinal cord injury. BMJ Open. 2022 Dec 8;12(12):e065684. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-065684.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 36600385 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

20-6312

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id