Walking fOR Health: The WORtH trial
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The feasibility of a walking intervention to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour in people with severe mental illness.
IRAS ID
250401
Contact name
Suzanne McDonough
Contact email
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
People who have a Severe Mental Illness can sometimes die earlier in life than people who don’t have a Severe Mental Illness, and have poorer physical health. The medications people take for their Mental Illness combined with an unhealthy lifestyle (e.g. not enough physical activity and too much sitting) can contribute to this. Walking is a good way to increase physical activity in the general population and may help people with Severe Mental Illness to be more active.
Feasibility Studies are pieces of research done before another study to answer the question “Can this study be done?”. There was a feasibility study done like this before in the UK in a large city; the study proposed here is in countryside settings in Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland. It will happen over 17 weeks. People with Severe Mental Illness will be assigned by the flip of a coin (randomly) into one of two groups. Both groups will get information on the benefits of physical activity. In addition one group will be shown how to use a step counter to measure their steps, be invited to a weekly group walk, and meet their coach every 2 weeks to see how they are getting on and to support them.
We are interested in finding out how willing clinicians are to recruit people into the study, how willing people are to take part, do people then stick with the 17 week programme, and if not the reasons for people dropping out. We will also ask people if they benefited from the programme, and did they enjoy it? All of this information will be used to see is it a good option to do a larger trial like this in the future.REC name
HSC REC B
REC reference
18/NI/0212
Date of REC Opinion
21 Jan 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion