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Which older people decline participation in a primary care trial of physical activity and why: insights from a mixed methods approach

Rogers, A; Harris, T; Victor, C; Woodcock, A; Limb, E; Kerry, S; Iliffe, S; Whincup, P; Ekelund, U; Beighton, C; et al. Rogers, A; Harris, T; Victor, C; Woodcock, A; Limb, E; Kerry, S; Iliffe, S; Whincup, P; Ekelund, U; Beighton, C; Ussher, M; Adams, F; Cook, DG (2014) Which older people decline participation in a primary care trial of physical activity and why: insights from a mixed methods approach. BMC GERIATRICS, 14 (46). ISSN 1471-2318 https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2318-14-46
SGUL Authors: Cook, Derek Gordon Harris, Teresa Jane Kerry, Sally Margaret Limb, Elizabeth Sarah Ussher, Michael Henry Whincup, Peter Hynes

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Abstract

Background: Physical activity is of vital importance to older peoples’ health. Physical activity intervention studies with older people often have low recruitment, yet little is known about non-participants. Methods: Patients aged 60–74 years from three UK general practices were invited to participate in a nurse-supported pedometer-based walking intervention. Demographic characteristics of 298 participants and 690 non-participants were compared. Health status and physical activity of 298 participants and 183 non-participants who completed a survey were compared using age, sex adjusted odds ratios (OR) (95% confidence intervals). 15 non-participants were interviewed to explore perceived barriers to participation. Results: Recruitment was 30% (298/988). Participants were more likely than non-participants to be female (54% v 47%; p = 0.04) and to live in affluent postcodes (73% v 62% in top quintile; p < 0.001). Participants were more likely than non-participants who completed the survey to have an occupational pension OR 2.06 (1.35-3.13), a limiting longstanding illness OR 1.72 (1.05-2.79) and less likely to report being active OR 0.55 (0.33-0.93) or walking fast OR 0.56 (0.37-0.84). Interviewees supported general practice-based physical activity studies, particularly walking, but barriers to participation included: already sufficiently active, reluctance to walk alone or at night, physical symptoms, depression, time constraints, trial equipment and duration. Conclusion: Gender and deprivation differences suggest some selection bias. However, trial participants reported more health problems and lower activity than non-participants who completed the survey, suggesting appropriate trial selection in a general practice population. Non-participant interviewees indicated that shorter interventions, addressing physical symptoms and promoting confidence in pursuing physical activity, might increase trial recruitment and uptake of practice-based physical activity endeavours.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Copyright: 2014 Rogers et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated
Keywords: Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Geriatrics & Gerontology, Gerontology, GERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY, GERONTOLOGY, Physical activity, Non-participation, Primary care, Older people, Recruitment, RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED-TRIAL, EXERCISE ADHERENCE, ALAMEDA COUNTY, ADULTS, INTERVENTION, POPULATION, CHALLENGES, DEPRESSION, MOTIVATORS, BARRIERS, Geriatrics, 1103 Clinical Sciences
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: Academic Structure > Population Health Research Institute (INPH)
Journal or Publication Title: BMC GERIATRICS
ISSN: 1471-2318
Related URLs:
Dates:
DateEvent
12 April 2014Published
Web of Science ID: WOS:000335556400001
URI: http://sgultest.da.ulcc.ac.uk/id/eprint/107077
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2318-14-46

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