Background
The Every Move Counts initiative was launched as a National Physical Activity Plan (NPAP) to increase nationwide physical activity (PA) levels to prevent and manage the development of adverse health outcomes (1). There are specific recommendations within the NPAP of PA levels for people living with chronic disease (CD) conditions as targets but only 41% of the Irish population self-report meeting the NPAP goals (2). The data is scant for the cohort of CD patients who could potentially benefit from increased PA and hence instead they fail to gain any beneficial healthy effects related to exercise.
Aim
To establish the prevalence of guideline-adherent PA among CD hospital patients, analyse its relationship with key physiological parameters, and identify barriers and service-level gaps to inform hospital and population-level strategies to improve physical activity.
Hypothesis
H1: Higher PA levels are associated with better physiological parameters.
H2: A substantial proportion of hospital outpatients with CD are insufficiently active, and report low awareness/limited support from local healthcare services.
H3: Health literacy is positively correlated with better physiological parameters.
H0: No significant relationship exists between PA levels and physiological parameters, and hospital based activity does not differ across different activity groups.
Objectives
The objectives of this research project are as follows: to measure physiological parameters of CD hospital patients and compare it to self-reported activity levels. To assess patient awareness of PA benefits, prior advice received from health care professionals, health literacy, and perceived barriers to PA. Additionally, to determine the prevalence of varying activity levels in CD hospital patient populations, and identify predictors of inactivity, stratified by demographics and comorbidities. Finally, to explore the relationship between PA levels and physiological parameters, identify potential risk groups for targeted interventions and prevent disease progression.