ArticleTrials2022
WalkingPad protocol: a randomized clinical trial of behavioral and motivational intervention added to smartphone-enabled supervised home-based exercise in patients with peripheral arterial disease and intermittent claudication.
Article in Trials, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04749732 (Patient Education on a Quantified Supervised Home-based Exercise Therapy to Improve Walking Ability in Patients With Peripheral Arterial Disease and Intermittent Claudication), which is not on this map. Cited by 4 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Patient Education on a Quantified Supervised Home-based Exercise Therapy to Improve Walking Ability in Patients With Peripheral Arterial Disease and Intermittent Claudication: WalkingPad Protocol
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Behaviour change interventions to promote physical activity in people with intermittent claudication: the OPTIMA systematic review.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Mobile health technologies to improve walking distance in people with intermittent claudication.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Exercise-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation for Peripheral Artery Disease.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Conversational Agents to Support Pain Management: A Scoping Review.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPhysical exercise is a first-line treatment for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and intermittent claudication (IC) reducing pain and increasing the distances walked. Home-based exercise therapy (HBET) has the advantage of reaching a higher number of patients and increasing adherence to physical exercise as it is performed in the patient's residential area and does not have the time, cost, and access restrictions of supervised exercise therapy (SET) implemented in a clinical setting. Even so, rates of adherence to physical exercise are relatively low, and therefore, m-health tools are promising in increasing motivation to behavior change and adherence to physical exercise. A built-in virtual assistant is a patient-focused tool available in a mobile interface, providing a variety of functions including health education, motivation, and implementation of behavior change techniques.
methodsThis is a single-center, prospective, three-arm, single-blind, randomized, controlled, superior clinical trial with stratified and blocked random allocation. Three hundred participants with PAD and IC will be recruited from an Angiology and Vascular Surgery Department, Centro Hospitalar Universitário Porto (CHUPorto), Porto, Portugal. All patients will receive the same medical care recommended by current guidelines. Participants in all three groups will receive a personalized prescription for an HBET program and a behavioral change and motivational intervention. Participants in experimental groups 1 and 2 will receive a smartphone with the WalkingPad app to monitor exercise sessions. Experimental group 2 WalkingPad app will have a built-in virtual assistant that will promote behavioral change and provide motivational support. Participants allocated to the active control group will not receive the m-health tool, but a practice diary to encourage monitoring. The program will last for 6 months with three evaluation moments (baseline, 3, and 6 months). The primary outcome will be the change in distances walked (maximal and pain-free) from baseline to 3 and 6 months. Secondary outcomes will be changes in quality of life, patients' perception of resistance, and walking speed. DISCUSSION: This study will allow measuring the effectiveness of an m-health tool in increasing motivation for behavior change and adherence to an HBET program in patients with PAD. The superiority of experimental group 2 in the primary and secondary outcomes will indicate that the virtual assistant is effective for motivating behavioral change and encouraging the practice and adherence to physical exercise. The use of m-health tools and virtual health assistants can potentially fill a gap in the access and quality of health services and information, reducing the burden on the health system and promoting self-management and self-care in chronic illness.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT04749732 . Registered on 10 February 2021.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.