Empowering: the experiences of exercise among heart transplantation patients in Taiwan

Abstract

Exercise can empower the new heart. After the exercise training, all patients felt that their new hearts were empowered with energy and vigour, and thus were willing to continue exercising. They even expanded their regimen to include folk therapies such as Tai Chi and breathing exercises.

Menopausal women: perceiving continuous power through the experience of regular exercise

“…Women perceived that they got ‘health power’ by themselves during the process of regular exercises. The interviewee's concept that ‘exercise enhances my health’ was similar to the conclusion of Jeng et al. (2002) study.…”

Coronary heart disease beliefs and misconceptions among cardiac patients and people with chronic illness

“…"Gin Pu" means eating herb with meat to revitalise the body). If any of these methods appeared effective to them, they would introduce it to other people even thought there is a lack of systematic evidence for these traditional therapies [27]. Individuals minimise the health threat and adopt coping methods to encounter the illness, it makes sense that the individuals would be receptive to opinions that are consistent with their preferred strategy for minimising distress [15].…”

Physical Activity Behaviour in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients: Proposal of Theory-Driven Physical Activity Interventions

“…The barriers and motivators were classified according to COM-B and TDF (Table 4) and subsequently embedded and discussed below according to the context dimension of CICI. The identified barriers and motivators were related to participation in physical activity and/or exercise [8,11,54,[69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79], exercise-based rehabilitation [80][81][82][83], or participation in the World Transplant Games [84]. The terms physical activity and exercise were often used interchangeably, making it impossible to make a clear distinction between these variables.…”

“…E.g., studies evaluating barriers and motivators for physical activity asked patients whether 'exercise or sports gave them unpleasant bodily signals' [69] and whether 'negative attitudes towards exercise' [79] were considered barriers to participating in physical activity. Increase mobility [74] and muscle strength [11,69] (K/M) Manage weight [11,69,81] (K/M) Improve endurance [73] (Lu) Consequences of inactivity [11,82] (K/M) Longevity of the transplanted kidney [74] (K) Improvements in body and transplant conditions and feeling the transplant becoming stronger [83] (H) Recognition that PA is essential for prolonging their lives and maintain the quality of their health [77] (M)…”

“…Coping [11,82] (K/M) Physical activity as routine habit [11,79,82] (K/M) Exploration of new capabilities and refine their understanding of their trans liminal, transplanted body-self [54] (N) Self-determination [71] (Li) [73,82], anxiety about physical activity [69], and fear of movement [75] (K/Lu) Fear of damaging the transplanted organ [11,81,83], increasing pain or injury [69,81]; negative effects [69,81]; infection [81]; rejection [73]; making health worse [69], and falling [69] (K/Lu/H/M) General fear of activities outdoors [83], or fear of outdoor activities due to fear for crime [69] or fear of being affected by a certain disease [83] (K/H) Depression [69] and low health-related quality of life [72] (K/M) Heightened sense of self-awareness during exercise and heightened awareness of normal exercise effects (i.e., increased blood pressure, heart rate) [74], insecurity with the body and body signals [11,77], and unpleasant sensations associated with exercise [69] (K/M) Greatened awareness of normal exercise effects, such as dehydration [74]; concerns exercise will make you too thirsty [69] (K) Being cautious about doing too much, feeling fatigued and not wanting to become more fatigued [69,74] (K) Self-consciousness about appearance [69] (K) Emotional trauma, most often as a direct result of transplant experience, including illness, the transplant procedure itself, and post-transplant recovery…”