Prehabilitation for being active. A feasibility study in fibromyalgia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development and piloting of a prehabilitation behavioural change and physical activity intervention for fibromyalgia syndrome
IRAS ID
248403
Contact name
Ciara Hughes
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Ulster University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 2 months, 20 days
Research summary
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FM) is a common chronic pain syndrome that has a significant on quality of life. Guidelines recommend physical activity however, patients find exercise challenging. This study aims to pilot a prehabilitation behavioural change intervention to gain patients ‘buy-in’ to exercise by assisting them to engage with exercise and overcome exercise barriers and improve exercise self-efficacy. This intervention will also enable participants to understand why and how to perform gentle self-paced exercise.
Participants. 12 people with FM
Intervention. A prehabilitation intervention consisting of a patient group meeting once per week (1 - 1.5 hours) for 4 weeks. In these sessions, participants will be taught how to set SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed) on what is valuable or meaningful to them. Participants will be encouraged to identify a ‘committed action’ linked to their goal which will be revisited throughout the programme. Participants will be advised on the use of pedometers to monitor physical activity.
Outcomes. The acceptability and credibility of the intervention by the treatment acceptability and credibility questionnaire (Borkovec and Nau, 1972; Appendix 1). Additionally, the success of the prehabilitation programme will be based on (i) number of sessions attended (>80%), (ii) number of drop outs (<15%) and reasons for early withdrawal, (iii) number of screening questionnaires completed and returned (>80%). Exit interviews on the completion on the study will explore participants’ experiences of the study including barriers to participation (Appendix 10). All interviews will audiotaped and transcribed for analysis.
While the primary outcomes from the study will be the feasibility outcomes as outlined above secondary outcomes will include a number of outcome measures will also be included to demonstrate proof of principle (including but not limited to measuring pain, sleeplessness, and quality of life; Appendixes 2 to 9).REC name
HSC REC A
REC reference
18/NI/0184
Date of REC Opinion
21 Nov 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion