MAP Study
Study Title
Promoting physical activity through group self-management support for those with multimorbidity: a randomised controlled trial (MAP Study)
Background
Multimorbidity is a growing health concern which current healthcare systems, typically centred on single disease states, are ill-equipped to treat. People with multiple chronic conditions often display low physical activity levels, which are associated with increased disease burden and mortality. Targeted self-management programmes may improve health and increase physical activity in people with multimorbidity, although this had not previously been investigated.
Study Aims
To investigate the impact of a structured, theoretically driven self-management group education programme on device-measured habitual physical activity levels in people with multimorbidity.
Study Summary
Single-centre 2-arm parallel 12-month RCT of people with multimorbidity (at least two co-existing long-term conditions) recruited from primary care practices. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive the intervention (four group-based self-management sessions with additional support from a text message package) or usual care. The primary outcome was daily overall physical activity at 12 months, measured using a wrist-worn accelerometer.
Study Findings
The study recruited a total of 353 participants. Following analysis of the physical activity data, it was found that the self-management programme elicited a slight reduction in physical activity levels in people with multimorbidity, though this may not have been clinically significant. Future studies should identify and target subgroups of those with multimorbidity at greatest need for physical activity promotion.
Funding and Sponsorship
The study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care East Midlands (CLAHRC EM) now recommissioned as NIHR Applied Research Collaboration East Midlands (ARC-EM), and the East Midlands Academic Health Science Network. The study was sponsored by the University of Leicester.
Study Publications
Dallosso H, Yates T, Mani H, Gray LJ, Dhalwani N, Baldry E, et al. Movement through Active Personalised engagement (MAP)—a self-management programme designed to promote physical activity in people with multimorbidity: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. Trials. 2018;19(576):s13063-018-2939-2. https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-018-2939-2
Kamlesh Khunti, Patrick J. Highton, Ghazala Waheed, Helen Dallosso, Emma Redman, Mark E. Batt, Melanie J. Davies, Laura J. Gray, Louisa Y. Herring, Hamidreza Mani, Alex Rowlands, Tom Yates. Promoting physical activity through group self-management support for those with multimorbidity: a randomised controlled trial. British Journal of General Practice. 2021. BJGP.2021.0172. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0172
Research Team
Principle Investigator: Professor Kamlesh Khunti
Project Manager: Dr Patrick Highton, ph204@le.ac.uk, 0116 258 4104
Trial registration
ISRCTN Registry ISRCTN 42791781. https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN42791781