Data linkage of exercise referral data and NHS usage
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A data linkage study to explore the long term effects of exercise referral schemes upon future NHS usage.
IRAS ID
233576
Contact name
Colin Shore
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Stirling
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Government recommendations suggests adults participate in 150 minutes of moderate intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity during the week: coupled with strength activities on two or more days a week (DoH, 2011). Evidence has shown that achieving these recommendations benefits adults in the management of many non-communicable diseases (NCD) (NICE, 2013). Primary care has been seen as a setting to promote physical activity (PA), via an exercise referral schemes (ERS), which sees a patient being referred to a third party exercise specialist to undertake a structured program. Increase in PA is the main marker of ERS effectiveness, however evaluations have shown that ERS elicits small to moderate short term improvements in PA (Campbell et al., 2015) with little evidence to suggest PA is maintained long term (Pavey et al., 2011). A systematic review found no evidence that objective measures of health were improved by ERS (Campbell et al., 2015).
A fundamental referral aspect of ERS is the presence of NCD. NICE recommend that health practitioners should not refer people who are sedentary or inactive, but otherwise healthy (NICE, 2014), indicating that ERS should be seen as place to implement change in participants managing their condition. Arguably a long term evaluation of ERS should focus on the management of NCD. In 2012/13, Scottish general practitioners and nurses dealt with around 24 million consultations. Furthermore practice nurse consultations account for around 8.0 million (33%) of consultations, demonstrative of a shift of chronic disease management (ISD, 2013). To that end the purpose of this research is to establish any associations or effects from linking patient data between ERS and NHS usage.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 3
REC reference
17/WS/0243
Date of REC Opinion
7 Dec 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion