The Mind Body-Wellness in Supportive Housing (Mi-WiSH) study: Design and rationale of a cluster randomized controlled trial of Tai Chi in senior housing.


Author: Wayne PM1, Gagnon MM2, Macklin EA3, Travison TG4, Manor B5, Lachman M6, Thomas CP7, Lipsitz LA8

Affiliation: <sup>1</sup>Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States. Electronic address: pwayne@partners.org.

<sup>2</sup>Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States. Electronic address: gagnon@hsl.harvard.edu.

<sup>3</sup>Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States. Electronic address: emacklin@mgh.harvard.edu.

<sup>4</sup>Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States. Electronic address: TGT@hsl.harvard.edu.

<sup>5</sup>Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States. Electronic address: BradManor@hsl.harvard.edu.

<sup>6</sup>Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, United States. Electronic address: lachman@brandeis.edu.

<sup>7</sup>The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, United States. Electronic address: cthomas@brandeis.edu.

<sup>8</sup>Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States. Electronic address: Lipsitz@hsl.harvard.edu.
Conference/Journal: Contemp Clin Trials.
Date published: 2017 Jul 7
Other:
  Pages: S1551-7144(17)30148-9   ,  Special Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2017.07.005. [Epub ahead of print]   ,  Word Count: 248  
    Supporting the health of growing numbers of frail older adults living in subsidized housing requires interventions that can combat frailty, improve residents' functional abilities, and reduce their health care costs. Tai Chi is an increasingly popular multimodal mind-body exercise that incorporates physical, cognitive, social, and meditative components in the same activity and offers a promising intervention for ameliorating many of the conditions that lead to poor health and excessive health care utilization. The Mind Body-Wellness in Supportive Housing (Mi-WiSH) study is an ongoing two-arm cluster randomized, attention-controlled trial designed to examine the impact of Tai Chi on functional indicators of health and health care utilization. We are enrolling participants from 16 urban subsidized housing facilities (n=320 participants), conducting the Tai Chi intervention or education classes and social calls (attention control) in consenting subjects within the facilities for one year, and assessing these subjects at baseline, 6months, and 1year. Physical function (quantified by the Short Physical Performance Battery), and health care utilization (emergency visits, hospitalizations, skilled nursing and nursing home admissions), assessed at 12months are co-primary outcomes. Our discussion highlights our strategy to balance pragmatic and explanatory features into the study design, describes efforts to enhance site recruitment and participant adherence, and summarizes our broader goal of post study dissemination if effectiveness and cost-effectiveness are demonstrated, by preparing training and protocol manuals for use in housing facilities across the U.S.



Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.



KEYWORDS: Frailty; aging; health care utilization; mind-body exercise; subsidized housing



PMID: 28694204  DOI: 10.1016/j.cct.2017.07.005