Physical activity and mental health experiences of people living with long term conditions during COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study
Physical activity and mental health experiences of people living with long term conditions during COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study
Introduction: regular physical activity is a strategy that is effective in the physical management of long term conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic, led to disruption of physical activity routines for many people with long term conditions. It is important, to understand the experiences of people with long term conditions regarding physical activity during COVID-19 to enable future identification of strategies to mitigate the impact of restrictions on health.
Objective: to explore perceptions and experiences of people with long term conditions of the impact of the UK Government physical distancing restrictions on their physical activity participation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: a qualitative study, with in depth videoconference semi-structured interviews were conducted between January and April 2022, with 26 adults living with at least one long term condition in the UK. Data were managed in analytical matrices within Excel and data analysis was conducted using thematic analysis.
Results. Two main themes were developed, explaining how participants managed their physical activity during COVID19 lockdowns, and based on those experiences, what they considered should be in place should another lockdown occur:1) COVID-19 and physical activity: Losses, opportunities and adapting to new formats; and 2) Micro, meso, and macro contexts: creating the right conditions for physical activity support in future pandemics.
Conclusions: this study provides information on how people with long term conditions managed their condition during the COVID-19 pandemic and generates new understanding of how physical activity routines changed. These findings will be used to inform stakeholder engagement meetings with individuals with long term conditions and local, regional, and national policy makers, to co-produce recommendations that will help people living with long term conditions remain active during and after COVID-19 and other pandemics.
e0285785
Ambrosio, Leire
0a21749c-3817-49de-bf15-0ea9233ecc5c
Morris, Jacqui
3a7cede4-9dc3-4ec5-b482-ca84b8935afe
Compton, Eric
2965623c-0150-4916-99a9-2ae7f66dc65c
Portillo Vega, Maria Carmen
f913b5c5-b949-48f2-b1d0-eb7505484d5c
10 July 2023
Ambrosio, Leire
0a21749c-3817-49de-bf15-0ea9233ecc5c
Morris, Jacqui
3a7cede4-9dc3-4ec5-b482-ca84b8935afe
Compton, Eric
2965623c-0150-4916-99a9-2ae7f66dc65c
Portillo Vega, Maria Carmen
f913b5c5-b949-48f2-b1d0-eb7505484d5c
Ambrosio, Leire, Morris, Jacqui, Compton, Eric and Portillo Vega, Maria Carmen
(2023)
Physical activity and mental health experiences of people living with long term conditions during COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study.
PLoS ONE, 18 (7 July), , [e0285785].
(doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0285785).
Abstract
Introduction: regular physical activity is a strategy that is effective in the physical management of long term conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic, led to disruption of physical activity routines for many people with long term conditions. It is important, to understand the experiences of people with long term conditions regarding physical activity during COVID-19 to enable future identification of strategies to mitigate the impact of restrictions on health.
Objective: to explore perceptions and experiences of people with long term conditions of the impact of the UK Government physical distancing restrictions on their physical activity participation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: a qualitative study, with in depth videoconference semi-structured interviews were conducted between January and April 2022, with 26 adults living with at least one long term condition in the UK. Data were managed in analytical matrices within Excel and data analysis was conducted using thematic analysis.
Results. Two main themes were developed, explaining how participants managed their physical activity during COVID19 lockdowns, and based on those experiences, what they considered should be in place should another lockdown occur:1) COVID-19 and physical activity: Losses, opportunities and adapting to new formats; and 2) Micro, meso, and macro contexts: creating the right conditions for physical activity support in future pandemics.
Conclusions: this study provides information on how people with long term conditions managed their condition during the COVID-19 pandemic and generates new understanding of how physical activity routines changed. These findings will be used to inform stakeholder engagement meetings with individuals with long term conditions and local, regional, and national policy makers, to co-produce recommendations that will help people living with long term conditions remain active during and after COVID-19 and other pandemics.
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340_Physical activity and mental health experiences of people living with long term conditions during COVID-19 pandemic
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journal.pone.0285785
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Accepted/In Press date: 2 May 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 10 July 2023
Published date: 10 July 2023
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Copyright: © 2023 Ambrosio et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Local EPrints ID: 478573
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/478573
ISSN: 1932-6203
PURE UUID: 21e1890d-9854-4a72-b343-0253d2f171dc
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Date deposited: 05 Jul 2023 17:08
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:37
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Author:
Leire Ambrosio
Author:
Jacqui Morris
Author:
Eric Compton
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