Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Survival rates have been improving in people with advanced organ disease that undergo solid organ transplantation (SOT). Therefore, there is a need for interventions that enhance long-term health outcomes and quality of life in this population. Exercise training has been shown to improve physical fitness in SOT recipients. However, studies of exercise training in SOT tend to be done in small groups of people, and use a wide variety of measurements to see if the exercise program was effective in domains beyond physical fitness. This leads to problems when trying to combine the results of studies and use this information to make clinical decisions about the need for exercise in people getting an organ transplant. Having standard outcomes that are measured in all studies is one way to address this problem. A standard set of outcomes is called a core outcomes set (COS). To develop a COS, experts in the field and individuals with lived experience need to meet and come to agreement about the most important outcomes. We are proposing to conduct a meeting of Canadian and international experts in exercise the discuss the outcomes that should be included in all clinical trials of exercise training in SOT and come to agreement on the COS. We will conduct an electronic survey, followed by a series of virtual meetings of an expert panel to reach agreement on the COS. The development of a COS for exercise training in SOT will greatly benefit this field of research, by strengthening the reporting of the most relevant outcomes. This will help to plan future clinical trials on exercise and, in turn, assist in clinical decision-making.