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Abstract: TH-PO817

Prehabilitative Virtual Reality Mindfulness and Personalized Physical Activity for Hemodialysis Patients With Depressive Symptoms: A Feasibility Study

Session Information

Category: Health Maintenance‚ Nutrition‚ and Metabolism

  • 1400 Health Maintenance‚ Nutrition‚ and Metabolism

Authors

  • Burrows, Brett, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States
  • King, Alexis, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States
  • Morgan, Ashley, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States
  • Wilund, Kenneth Robert, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States
Background

Historically, exercise-related trials in hemodialysis (HD) patients have suffered from low exercise adherence, possibly due to a lack of personalization and/or high rates of depression in HD patients. Therefore, our aim was to assess the feasibility and initial efficacy of applying a novel virtual reality (VR) mindfulness program as a prehabilitation to a personalized activity prescription (PARx) in HD patients with elevated depressive symptoms

Methods

HD patients (n=10) with elevated depressive symptoms were randomized into a treatment (VR mindfulness + PARx) or control (PARx only) group. The intervention began with 2 weeks of prehabilitation, in which the treatment group was exposed to our VR-based mindfulness program and the control group received usual care. Directly following, both groups participated in 8 weeks of our PARx program. Feasibility was assessed through recruitment, retention, adherence, acceptability, and adaption (assessed by the Modified Health Care Climate Questionnaire). Initial efficacy was measured using metrics of depression, mindfulness, fatigue, and physical activity (PA) energy expenditure.

Results

Recruitment rate was 25%, with a 90% retention rate. Mean age was 59.60 (± 13.66) years; 70% female; and 60% Black. 100% and 90% of the participants liked or strongly liked our VR mindfulness program and PARx, respectively. PARx demonstrated high levels of perceived autonomy support (M= 27.6 ± 2.1). Following the prehabilitation, the treatment group showed significant between-group improvement in mindfulness (p= 0.02) and trended towards significance in depressive symptoms (p= 0.07). Both groups saw an increase in PA energy expenditure from week 1 to week 8 of PARx (treatment: 824 to 2835 kcals/wk and control 792 to 1740 kcals/wk), though no between-group difference was evident. The treatment group did, however, have a significant within-group increase in PA energy expenditure (p< 0.01).

Conclusion

The current pilot study demonstrated that our novel VR-based mindfulness program and PARx program are both feasible and potentially efficacious for in-center HD patients. Future trials should examine a larger sample size and expand the intervention duration to validate these findings.

Funding

  • Private Foundation Support