COMPLETED: Digital support for maintaining physical activity in people with long-term conditions
What promotes and prevents health professionals using ‘digital’ technologies to support people with long-term conditions (LTCs) to maintain physical activity and improve their health and wellbeing?
Principle Investigator - Professor Mary Barker (meb@mrc.soton.ac.uk)
Senior Research Assistant – Dr James Gavin (j.p.gavin@soton.ac.uk)
Team
Prof Mary Barker (PI), Prof Maria Stokes (Co-Lead), Prof Suzanne McDonough (Co-Lead at RCSI), Mrs Luisa Holt, Dr Aoife Stephenson (RCSI), Mr Paul Muckelt, Dr Nisreen Alwan, Dr Katherine Bradbury, Dr James Faulkner (University of Winchester), Dr Dorit Kunkel, Dr Euan Sadler, Prof Sandy Jack, Mrs Rachael Eckford, Mr Jem Lawson (PPI) and Mr Ranj Parmar (PPI)
Project partners
• Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
• University of Winchester
What did we find?
We interviewed 15 GPs and health professionals to find out their experiences of using digital technologies, such as online consultations, mobile-phone applications (or ‘apps’) and websites, to support people with LTCs to manage their health.
We now have a better understanding of the factors preventing and promoting the use of digital technologies by health professionals to support people with LTCs in the NHS. These included:
Preventing: one ‘app’ will not suit all LTCs, ‘apps’ must be user-friendly and accurate, clinicians need to dedicate time to the technology, security risks, patients need to have digital literacy, and long-term investment is required (time and finance).
Promoting: ‘apps’ being evidence based, peer/social support of GP networks (including positive feedback), charity endorsement, COVID-19 changing people’s attitudes to digital health, ‘apps’ being linked to a hospital’s IT systems, accountability/monitoring of ‘apps’, and digital champions
What difference will this make?
Better understanding of the factors preventing and promoting the use of digital technologies by NHS healthcare professionals can help researchers develop new assessments and interventions to help people with LTCs to self-manage their conditions.
In future, it could inform a regional evaluation of existing self-management programmes and initiatives to support people with LTCs to maintain their health and physical activity, from a digital perspective
What are we doing with this?
We have published one journal paper in PLOS One (2024) and co-investigator, Prof O’Donough published one systematic review paper in Digital Health (2024)
In conjunction with the ‘non-digital’ MOTH study, we are in the process of applying for funding for:
A PhD studentship, and NIHR Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) award
Maintaining physical activity and social connections for people with multiple LTCs: intervention development.
The aim is to produce a plan for how best to proceed with improving partnership working within Wessex.
The aim is to produce a plan for how best to proceed with improving partnership working within Wessex.
What next?
We plan to combine the non-digital and digital findings from the MOTH programme and apply for NIHR RfPB funding to co-design a 12-week follow-on maintenance intervention to sustainphysical activity for people with multiple LTCs following existing PA programmes between healthcare and community settings.
The intervention will be developed informed by and aligned to the NHS Neighborhood Health agenda (2025) and current Southampton Integrated Neighborhood Hubs project.
A suitable funding call is the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) programme (tier 3), with a stage 1 deadline of February 2026.
Digital MOTH summary
Non-Digital Moth Summary
Publications