Background:

There is strong evidence that being active and sitting less is important for health. Guidance states that adults should, over a week, complete at least 150-minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity (30-minutes per/day) in periods of 10-mins or more. However, few people manage this which puts their health at risk. The reason why so few people are meeting the current physical activity guidance may be because they have to make big changes to their lifestyle, which can be too difficult. An alternative is an idea we have called ‘snacktivity’. Rather than encouraging people to do 30-minutes of physical activity each day in one go, or in 10 min periods, snacktivity focuses on encouraging people to do small physical activity ‘snacks’, throughout the day so they achieve 150-minutes of activity per/week.

Policy and Practice Partners:

Birmingham Community Health Care Trust

Co-Funding partners:

Birmingham Community Health Care Trust

Aims and Objectives:

To develop the snacktivity intervention; undertake a feasibility trial of snacktivity; and evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of snacktivity versus usual advice in NHS health checks and community healthcare services.

Methods:

We will conduct a series of studies to develop and refine the snacktivity intervention, including feedback from the public on the intervention. Data from these early studies will be used to inform subsequent feasibility (n=80) and phase III trials (n=966) to test the acceptability and effectiveness of the snacktivity intervention. The intervention will be embedded within NHS health checks and community health services consultations. Technology is now available to provide real time/objective feedback on physical activity, so paper-based methods are now redundant. We therefore plan to use a smartphone application (snackapp) synchronised with a wrist worn physical activity tracker with the specific aim of facilitating self-monitoring of snacktivity and offering feedback on behaviour. The snackapp will prompt PA after 1hr of inactivity. The cost effectiveness of the intervention will also be assessed.

Main Results:

Ongoing

Conclusions:

TBC

Implications for Implementation:

Ongoing study

Protocol:

https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN64851242?q=daley&filters=&sort=&offset=1&totalResults=26&page=1&pageSize=10&searchType=basic-search