Grant: Catalyst Grant: Digital Health

Muscle health and mobility are impacted after stroke. Power training is a form of exercise that involves moving resistance quickly, which can be effective for stroke recovery. But all the research on power training has been done in-person, which can create barriers to access for people with stroke. "Exercise snacks" involve brief bouts of exercise spread throughout the day. This form of exercise can be done at home, which can remove barriers to accessing power training. They can also be delivered using digital health applications. People with stroke hold positive beliefs about using technology, but we need more research to develop digital exercise programs. We are proposing a project to develop the HOme-based Power training Snacks after Stroke (HOPSS) intervention. In Step 1, we will interview people with stroke who have participated in one of our power training interventions. We will ask them what supports and materials they would need to do power training at home and invite them to join our research team. We will also send out a survey to people with stroke to get their views on in-person and digital exercise programs. In Step 2, we will make a logic model to show how we believe HOPSS could impact power training participation using behaviour change theories. In Step 3, we will do a scoping review. We will look for articles that used mobile applications to deliver exercise in people with stroke. We will make note of the specific exercises that could be beneficial, as well as any behaviour change strategies that they used, like in-app reminders and feedback. In Step 4, we will meet with our partners to select the right digital health application to deliver HOPSS. We believe that this approach to developing HOPSS will improve the accessibility of power training in Canadians with stroke.