The Barts Health Covid-19 Physical Activity Study

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Investigating the impact of a smart watch based physical activity intervention to support NHS staff during the current Covid-19 outbreak.

  • IRAS ID

    283199

  • Contact name

    Mays Jawad

  • Contact email

    research.governance@qmul.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Barts Health NHS trust

  • Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

    n.a, n/a

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    5 years, 0 months, 24 days

  • Research summary

    The recent Covid-19 outbreak has led to significant changes in the working patterns of trust staff. Up to a third are now working from home, some are in isolation and others have been redeployed and had working patterns changed. The impact of this and wider social distancing measures has meant that opportunities to exercise and maintain PA have been significantly reduced.

    Regular exercise is a national recommendation and will have significant benefits to individuals physical and mental health wellbeing. It is recommended that everyone should aim for 150 minutes moderate exercise a week, complete two strength-based exercise session a week and avoid prolonged inactivity. The new working patterns, and social distancing measures will mean that it is harder to staff to achieve these recommendations.

    We would like to assess the physical activity levels of staff who are (working on site, in isolation or working from home). We would also like to assess the impact of structured wellbeing interventions that would improve access to equipment, provide exercise resources or access to areas that will help staff wellbeing.

    The study will run for a period of 18 months and we will assess a series of interventions to improve staff wellbeing. We aim to monitor Physical activity levels and sleep using a smart watch based device. The data will be collected on an online platform.

  • REC name

    South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    20/SC/0421

  • Date of REC Opinion

    12 Nov 2020

  • REC opinion

    Unfavourable Opinion