Salutogenic Healthy Ageing Programme Embracement (SHAPE) for senior-only households: A study protocol

To evaluate the effectiveness of a multi-dimensional community-based health promotion and risk prevention programme, named Salutogenic Healthy Ageing Programme Embracement (SHAPE) for senior-only households in Singapore.

In view of ageing population and its significant impacts on economy, societal structure and policy-making, healthy ageing emerges as an important concept in maintaining health through the engagement of health-promoting behaviour and risk prevention actions in older people.

A stratified randomized control trial with process evaluation is proposed.

The salutogenic model, which focuses on positive well-being and optimizing health outcomes, provides an underpinning theoretical framework for this study. SHAPE is a 12-week intervention programme comprising of both weekly group-based activity sessions and home visits. One hundred and fifty-four eligible participants will be stratified and randomly allocated to either the SHAPE intervention or the control group. Both outcome and process evaluation will be conducted. Outcome measures include sense of coherence, quality of life, health-promoting behaviours, self-efficacy and other health-related outcomes. These data will be collected at four time points: baseline, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months. Individual qualitative face-to-face interviews will be conducted for older people receiving SHAPE to explore their views on the programme.

The use of salutogenic model breaks away from the negatively connoted conventional biomedical model and addresses optimization of positive health, providing an overall holistic approach to care of older people. The intervention SHAPE seeks to identify, equip and strengthen resources for senior-only households, encouraging the adaption of health-promoting and risk-preventing actions to achieve better health outcomes and higher quality of life.