# Enhanced Home-Based Exercise Therapy for Peripheral Arterial Disease through Mobile Health and Remote Monitoring

> **NIH VA IK2** · VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION · 2023 · —

## Abstract

An estimated 8.5 million Americans (or 7% of US adults) and nearly 10% of veterans are estimated to
have peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Significantly debilitating and negatively impacting quality of life, the
primary symptom of PAD is claudication (reproducible leg pain with ambulation) that leads to impaired mobility,
loss of functional independence, and a heightened risk for amputation. Veterans are at an increased risk of
developing symptomatic PAD due to their disproportionately high rates of PAD risk factors such as diabetes,
smoking, and hypertension, the most prominent PAD risk factors.
 Supervised exercise therapy is proven to decrease claudication and enhance mobility in PAD; however,
fewer than 25% of eligible patients enroll. Participation in this facility-based program requires travel to a
rehabilitation center 3 times per week for 12-weeks, which can be burdensome and costly for Veterans, many
of whom live in rural areas and on fixed incomes. There is, therefore, a need to develop a convenient and
effective alternative exercise rehabilitation program for Veterans with PAD, particularly in light of safety
considerations now associated with this population’s travel to group facilities in the current COVID pandemic.
 A promising approach to increase access to exercise rehabilitation for PAD is remote, home-based
exercise therapy (HBET). Our group has successfully delivered a smartphone-enabled HBET program to
Veterans with coronary artery disease with a 3-fold increase in participation and high satisfaction (80%). To
this end, we are committed to utilizing technology innovations to implement HBET for Veterans with PAD
successfully. HBET programs combine self-led walking exercises with health coaching and exercise tracking
with a wearable activity monitor. Adapting HBET to PAD is difficult, however, due to the added complexity of an
exercise prescription that requires the patient to walk until they experience near-maximal leg pain. Even with
active coaching, successfully implementing HBET for PAD with long-term adherence has been difficult in the
past. Our goal, therefore, is to leverage newer mobile health (mHealth) tools to adapt HBET for PAD.
 We propose to test our technology-enhanced approach for HBET by partnering with a successful VA
lifestyle program, MOVE!, which has demonstrated success in achieving sustained weight loss and reduced
diabetes onset through lifestyle modification. As increased physical activity is a core element of MOVE!,
participation may help increase adherence with HBET for PAD. Our newly proposed program, Smart MOVE!,
will be a multi-component program featuring a tailored version of MOVE! and a novel mHealth device called
the LifeQ to improve convenience, access, and adherence to HBET for PAD.
 Aim 1 (Years 1-2): Identify barriers and facilitators to MOVE! participation among Veterans with PAD.
 Aim 2 (Years 1-2): Evaluate the feasibility of the LifeQ device to monitor exercise during HBET
 Aim 3 (Years 2...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10686930
- **Project number:** 5IK2RX003546-03
- **Recipient organization:** VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION
- **Principal Investigator:** Arash Harzand
- **Activity code:** IK2 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-10-01 → 2026-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10686930

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10686930, Enhanced Home-Based Exercise Therapy for Peripheral Arterial Disease through Mobile Health and Remote Monitoring (5IK2RX003546-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10686930. Licensed CC0.

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