Walking Football for Breathlessness
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Walking Football for People with Chronic Breathlessness: a mixed-methods feasibility study
IRAS ID
317148
Contact name
Callum Bradford
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Teesside University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
The objective of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of a walking football intervention for people with chronic breathlessness. Chronic breathlessness refers to breathlessness that persists despite optimal treatment of the underlying pathophysiology. Roughly 9-13% of the general population will experience chronic breathlessness, with incidence rising with age to 37% for those aged over 60years.
This mixed-methods study will offer patients who have enrolled on to pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) the prospect to partake in walking football once they have completed their scheduled programmes (or voluntarily dropped-out); introducing a potential opportunity for long-term exercise maintenance post PR. Participants will be recruited from North Tees & Hartlepool Foundation Trust, and South Tees Foundation Trust.
PR is recommended for all people with chronic breathlessness and has been shown to improve exercise capacity and health-related quality of life. However, PR programmes typically only last for 6-12 weeks, and have little to no impact on long-term physical activity levels. Walking Football has been identified as a potential form of exercise which people with breathlessness could maintain post-PR, thus offering a solution to PRs limited ability to promote exercise maintenance.
Participants will be invited to play walking football for 6-weeks (2-hours weekly) in the Middlesbrough/Stockton area. Before and after weeks 1 and 6, breathlessness-relevant outcomes will be measured including; exercise capacity, lower-limb strength, perceived breathlessness, quality of life, balance confidence, depression, and anxiety.
During a participant’s third session, one-time physical intensity outcomes will be calculated during play including heart-rate and perceived intensity. Participants will also be invited to an interview to discuss how feasible they have found the football, any benefits they may have experienced, and how the football programme could be improved.
The study will officially end with a co-production workshop; a focus group with stakeholders (players, physiotherapists, co-ordinators, researchers) after preliminary analysis has been conducted to discuss initial findings.
REC name
North East - Tyne & Wear South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/NE/0229
Date of REC Opinion
5 Jan 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion