Evaluation of a Physical-Psychological Integrative (PPI) intervention for community-dwelling spinal cord injury survivors: Study protocol of a preliminary randomized controlled trial

INTRODUCTION: There is a considerably large group of community-dwelling spinal cord injury (SCI) survivors living with low quality of life. Physical inactivity, depression, and chronic pain are major problems faced by SCI survivors discharged from the acute phase of treatment or inpatient rehabilitation. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects of a Physical-Psychological Integrative (PPI) online group intervention on community-dwelling SCI survivors’ physical activity, depression, and chronic pain. METHODS: This is a two-arm pilot randomized controlled trial with repeated measures (pre-, post-intervention, and 3-month follow-up) design. Seventy-two participants will be randomly assigned to two study groups. The PPI intervention group will receive a video program for physical activity training and eight-week online group psychological interventions using skills of group-based motivational interviewing and mindfulness-based stress reduction. The control group will receive an eight-week online didactic education programed. Focus-group interviews will be conducted post-intervention to explore their views about acceptance and suggested improvements to the intervention. The feasibility of study procedures and the acceptability of interventions will be evaluated. The effectiveness of the PPI intervention will be evaluated by leisure-time physical activity, depression, chronic pain, exercise efficacy, mindfulness, and quality of life. We will use the generalized estimating equation to assess intervention effects and content analysis for interview data. This study has received ethical approval from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HSEARS20210705004) and was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05535400). DISCUSSION: This study will be the first to provide empirical data on the evaluation of an online-group intervention integrating both physical activity promotion and psychological approaches, aimed at reducing physical inactivity, depression, and chronic pain for community-dwelling SCI survivors in Hong Kong. The findings could provide evidence supporting the use of PPI intervention as a novel online group support, in addressing both the physical and psychological needs of community-dwelling SCI survivors.