Development of a physical activity referral scheme
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development of a novel, evidenced-based physical activity referral scheme for inactive individuals with or at risk of developing lifestyle related diseases.
IRAS ID
204481
Contact name
Paula M Watson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Liverpool John Moores University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 12 months, 0 days
Research summary
The benefits of regular physical activity are well documented and have been proven to elicit substantial health benefits in inactive individuals as documented by Public Health England. Yet the majority of UK adults are physically inactive. Lifestyle interventions aimed at enhancing PA levels represent a non-invasive and potentially cost-effective tool for disease prevention. Due to the limited research in support of effectiveness of exercise referral schemes, the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommended that practitioners, policy makers, and commissioners should only endorse exercise referral schemes to promote physical activity that collect evaluation data and/or are part of a research study to determine its effectiveness.
The primary aim of this study is to develop an evidenced-based, physical activity referral scheme for individuals with or at risk of developing lifestyle related health conditions. The intervention will be developed in collaboration with the current exercise referral scheme stakeholders and will draw on evidence-based theory to promote long-term physical activity participation. The protocol design will be based upon evaluations of an existing exercise referral scheme in Liverpool with the aim to be scalable and sustainable. A multidisciplinary development group will be formed with stakeholders required for the successful delivery and implementation of the physical activity referral scheme. The development group will include representatives from Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group, Liverpool City Council and Liverpool John Moores University (public health commissioners, academics, general practitioners, ERS practitioners) and potential service users. Six meetings will be organised for the multidisciplinary development group to attend and materialise the scheme. Focus groups will be conducted with current exercise referral scheme patients to gauge their perceptions of the novel protocol, and feed their thoughts back into the development group. The developed intervention will then be tested in the 'real world' as part of further studies contributing to a PhD.REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EM/0157
Date of REC Opinion
6 Apr 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion