Compliance
The intervention group were followed up weekly by telephone by the research dietician/nurse to encourage adherence to the intervention. They were asked to report if during the past week they had performed the exercises as per the instructions received from the research nurse with the alternatives: (1) Yes, completely (2) Yes, but not all exercises (3) Yes, but only once (4) No, not at all. Compliance was assessed as “yes” (alternative 1 and 2) and as “no” (alternatives 3/4).