Heart failure and participation in physical activity: Healthcare professional support and availability of community physical activity services.

PI Title: Vincent Singh

Lead member: Bristol

"Aims: We aim to explore the barriers and enablers to primary and community healthcare professionals (GPs and nurses) referring people with heart failure to community physical activity services. This issue has been highlighted by patients and the public and is under-researched. We want to find out what physical activity services are available in the community for people with heart failure who do not get cardiac rehabilitation or have previously had access but still have physical activity needs. This study is part of ongoing research by Bristol researchers to support people with heart failure in their everyday physical activity.
Background: Heart failure affects the heart's ability to function well enough, and people can experience breathlessness, tiredness, and a buildup of bodily fluids. Research supports the benefit of physical activity for people with heart failure. We know that people with heart failure often seek advice from healthcare professionals about participating in physical activity safely, but healthcare professionals are not always sure what physical activity advice is best for their patients. It is also important to understand what physical activity services are available for healthcare professionals to refer patients to, and to explore how patients are referred into these physical activity services.
Methods:
1) we will interview healthcare professionals (GPs and nurses) who refer to community physical activity services to understand the challenges and opportunities that arise when talking with patients about physical activity and referring to these services.
2) We will contact the Integrated Care Boards in England who commission community services to find out what physical activity services are available to people with heart failure and how primary and community healthcare professionals can refer patients to the services and whether they can do this directly or is it via link workers or social prescribing networks.
3) We will discuss the results of this research in two workshops with patients with heart failure, members of the public, healthcare professionals and service providers to determine how best to share our findings. These workshops will be used to inform the development of an intervention for healthcare professionals referring to physical activity services and support the community service configuration. In all stages of this project, we aim to understand factors that may cause inequalities and barriers to people participating in physical activity.
Result
We will publish our findings in research papers and work with patients, members of the public and healthcare professionals to write and share a user-friendly summary of our results. The findings from this study will inform a future programme of heart failure research at Bristol to improve services for people with heart failure who have physical activity needs."

Amount awarded: £211,539