Pilot walking intervention for people with severe mental illness
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Walk This Way: A pilot study investigating the effect of a motivational pedometer based walking intervention to reduce sedentary behaviour and increase activity levels of people with serious mental illness
IRAS ID
177145
Contact name
Tom K.J. Craig
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 20 days
Research summary
People with serious mental illness have a shorter life expectancy than the general population (Lawrence et al 2013). This is due to complex reasons including the effects of antipsychotic medication and unhealthy lifestyle factors.
Walking is a simple and gentle form of exercise which has some promising evidence in reducing weight in people with psychosis (Soundy et al 2014). There is also evidence that breaking up sessions of sedentary behaviour (ie, sitting or lying) can positively impact on cardiovascular (CVD) risk factors.
We wish to pilot a 16 week intervention to increase physical activity and breakup sessions of sedentary behaviour with people using adult community mental health services in Lambeth to assess the feasibility of the intervention. We will recruit 40 people and randomise them to 50% intervention and 50% control. We will collect outcome data on the person's level of activity (which will involve asking participants to wear an accelerometer for four days pre and post intervention) and wear a pedomoter during the intervention. We will also collect details of sociodemographics, physical health status, and mental well-being pre and post intervention.
We will also undertake a process evaluation of the intervention to understand the experience of participants by interviewing participants after the intervention has finished. We will use the information from this study to plan for a larger Randomised Controlled Trial.REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/1188
Date of REC Opinion
17 Aug 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion