Telephone health coaching with exercise monitoring using wearable activity trackers (TeGeCoach) for improving walking impairment in peripheral artery disease: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial and economic evaluation.

Introduction: Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is the third most prevalent cardiovascular disease worldwide, with smoking and diabetes being the strongest risk factors. The most prominent symptom is leg pain while walking, known as intermittent claudication. To improve mobility, first-line treatment for intermittent claudication is supervised exercise programmes, but these remain largely unavailable and economically impractical, which has led to the development of structured home-based exercise programmes.