Participants' perceptions of a lifestyle approach to promoting physical activity: targeting deprived communities in Kingston-Upon-Hull

Abstract

Background: The health benefits of an active lifestyle have been extensively documented and generally accepted. In the UK, declining physical activity levels are a major contributing factor to a number of public health concerns such as obesity and coronary heart disease. Clearly, there is an urgent need to support people in developing sustainable active lifestyles. In 2003, a new lifestylebased physical activity service called Active Lifestyles (AL) was set up in Kingston-upon-Hull to help local residents to become more active and develop healthier lifestyles. The service targeted the most deprived communities in the city. The aim of the study was to explore participants' perceptions of the operation and effectiveness of the AL service.

Impact of an exercise programme on sustaining physical activity for recovering cancer patients: A qualitative study.

“…The research design adopted is noteworthy in that it contrasts with other studies in the exercise referral literature in 2 specific ways. Firstly, the majority of studies published in this area adopt a quantitative approach [28][29][30][31][32][33], although some studies do adopt a qualitative approach [34][35][36][37]. Through using a qualitative approach to data collection and analysis, this study was able to investigate the patients' experiences of involvement with an exercise referral scheme and its impact on sustaining physical activity levels for 3 months after completion of the programme.…”

Perceived changes to quality of life indicators following a physical activity intervention for recovering cancer patients: A qualitative study.

“…The research design adopted is noteworthy in that it contrasts with other studies in the exercise referral literature in 2 specific ways. Firstly, the majority of studies published in this area adopt a positivist approach [21][22][23][24][25], although some studies do adopt an interpretive approach [26][27][28][29]. Through using a qualitative approach to data collection and analysis, this study was able to investigate the patients' changing perceptions over a 6-month time period for the following QoL indicators of (i) self-efficacy, (ii) selfmanagement, (iii) chronic fatigue and (iv) increasing energy levels [12,16,18].…”

Long-term engagement with a practice-based exercise referral scheme: Patients’ perceptions of effectiveness

“…Previous findings from both qualitative [15,18,20,25] and quantitative [23,27,28,32] research in exercise referral has shown that ERS can promote physical activity in the short to medium-term (12-26 weeks). In our analysis of 12 seriously ill patients participating in an ERS, we found that long-term engagement with a practice-based scheme aided physical activity adherence and increased combined (walking and exercise classes) physical activity levels, in the long-term.…”

“…The study design contrasts with other studies on exercise referral in 3 specific ways. First, the majority of studies on exercise referral tend to be from a positivist theoretical perspective [20][21][22][23][24], rather than an interpretivist perspective [15,17,18,25]. Second, the deployment of 3 data collection and analysis phases differed to traditional schemes that have a 12 week intervention [15,[26][27][28][29][30] and a 12 week follow up [31,32].…”