During the COVID-19 pandemic, we worked with Wiltshire Health and Care to deliver a small scale project that aimed to help people living with a respiratory diagnosis to improve the self-management of their condition by supporting them to understand and improve their everyday physical activity.
Why?
Due to the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Wiltshire Health and Care were unable to deliver the usual Pulmonary Rehabilitation programme. However, it is recognised that maintaining physical activity levels is important to support wellbeing in people living with this condition.
The project explored the use of the KiActiv® Health programme which offers a personalised and guided online intervention that empowers participants to increase physical activity within their everyday lives.
The project aimed to recruit up to 30 patients over a six month period, funded by the West of England AHSN, with real world data collected to help build evidence to support possible future commissioning decisions and opportunities.
How the programme worked
Patients recruited onto the programme by the clinical team joined the KiActiv 12 week programme. The programme was available 24/7 and required no visits to clinics or gyms. KiActiv® Health incorporates behaviour change technology in an interactive personalised dashboard that uses data from an accurate activity tracker and dedicated mentor support over the 12 weeks. It is focused on everyday physical activity, promoting opportunities to be active across all ~112 waking hours a week, rather than 1-2 hours of an exercise intervention, with no barriers to age, mobility or environment.
Participants are supported by phone calls with a trained KiActiv® mentor at key times in the programme. The calls help participants build an understanding of the value of their daily activities and the confidence to plan, monitor and improve, without compulsion or prescription.
At the end of the 12 weeks participants have continued access to their personal dashboard and activity monitor to enable them to continue their self-management and the changes to their daily routines.
As KiActiv® is not a direct replacement for PR and is very much a self-management tool, the KiActiv® mentors do not prescribe exercise or physical activity, but rather work with individuals to implement sustainable lifestyle change, which is led by them. The programme doesn’t offer any of the educational content that a patient would receive during PR.
The results
The Keeping Active During Covid-19 pilot is now closed. You can download the full evaluation report here.
