Activity pacing for fatigue management
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Activity pacing, fatigue management, and self-regulation as a promising approach for managing fatigue symptoms and for promoting physical activity in adults who experience fatigue
IRAS ID
313465
Contact name
Florentina Hettinga
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Northumbria at Newcastle
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 2 months, 1 days
Research summary
Adults with chronic conditions often suffer from fatigue limiting their ability to perform balanced physical activities during the day. Perceived fatigue is an important denominator of limitation in functional independence and health-related quality of life. This results in reduction of physical activity levels. Activity pacing is a behavioural approach in which individuals divide their daily activities into smaller and more controllable activities either naturally or programmatically as a strategy. Programmatic pacing is an intervention or strategy aiming to balance and stimulate an active lifestyle, by managing fatigue symptoms while increasing physical activity levels and maximizing self-regulation. It teaches people with fatigue to pre-plan rest periods and to successfully manage their physical activities and energy over the day without premature fatigue. In contrast, naturalistic pacing identifies the pacing behaviour that a person implements without activity pacing guidance by a health professional. Moreover, self-regulation is a goal-directed behaviour or performance and has been found an important factor on physical activity. Overall, activity pacing in combination with fatigue management and self-regulation are important on how to promote physical activity and manage fatigue symptoms. Therefore, the quality of life is improved. This project will focus on perceived fatigue as a barrier to physical activity participation and will explore if and how activity pacing, fatigue management, and self-regulation strategies can help to overcome this barrier. Improving professional support and self-management approaches to facilitate the health and well-being of adults with fatigue requires a better understanding of how these activities and processes can be harnessed for benefiting these individuals. Participants with significant fatigue will be recruited from Cresta Clinic at Newcastle, which is the first NHS transdiagnostic multi-disciplinary fatigue clinic in the UK. This observational study will include three data collection rounds (questionnaires, observational accelerometer, interviews). The project will last until March 2025.
REC name
Wales REC 4
REC reference
23/WA/0071
Date of REC Opinion
2 Mar 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion