Make Movement Your Mission: evaluation of an online digital health initiative to increase physical activity in older people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract

Objective. To evaluate the Make Movement Your Mission (MMYM) digital health initiative to promote physical activity (PA) levels and help avert the negative consequences of sedentary behaviours in older adults during the SARS-CoV2 pandemic.
Methods. Mixed-method study to explore activity levels, changes in physical function and Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), quality-of-life, social engagement, technology use, and accessibility. Survey data were analysed descriptively. Qualitative interviews were analysed using framework analysis.
Results. Forty-one respondents completed the survey (Mean age 68.4 (8.9) years; 34 Female), 68% aged ≥ 65 years. Average attendance 14.3 sessions per week (3.5 hours). 73% had been with MMYM for >1 year, 90% reported they were doing more movement on a typical day, 75% reported improvement in ability to perform moderate PA. Since starting MMYM 48% had increased strengthening, 73% balance and 75% flexibility activities. 83% now met strength and 90% the balance PA guidelines for health ≥ 2x per week. Between 18 and 53% of respondents reporting improvements in different ADLs due to MMYM, 53% better quality-of-life, 28% increased use of the internet.
Eight participants were interviewed (Mean age: 70.7 years, 7 Female). Activity levels were promoted by having direct support from the instructor through Facebook messages pre and post live sessions, having group expectation about quality and level of engagement, having a sense of control and encouragement from others, MMYMs regularity, choice and accessibility. Noticing short-term outcomes in balance and posture helped boost confidence and continued participation.
Conclusion. Clinical trials need to robustly assess its effectiveness and acceptability.

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Creative Commons NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work as published without adaptation or alteration, without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221084468

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https://researchonline.gcu.ac.uk/en/publications/ab29ad6a-4814-424f-a5f0-d1ca5c0af9c8