Physical Activity Messages for Youth with Disabilities: An Evaluation of Attitudes, Intentions, and Preferences

Views of men with Parkinson's disease regarding physical activity health messaging

BACKGROUND

Many men with Parkinson's Disease (PD) do not meet the recommended levels of physical activity (PA) for health benefits. Tailored, meaningful, and culturally sensitive PA health messages may be a catalyst to shape men's motivations toward participation.

OBJECTIVE

We explored the views of New Zealand (NZ) men with PD about existing PA health messages, and how these could be adapted to be more effective.

METHODS

This qualitative study recruited six community dwelling, regularly physically active, NZ European men with PD (aged 54-69 years, 2-18 years post-diagnosis) from a community exercise class in Canterbury, NZ. Participants engaged in semi-structured interviews which were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed inductively for themes.

RESULTS

Participants expressed that effective PA health messages should reflect men's motivations for PA which included physical and mental well-being and social connection. Inclusive, positive, and relatable language and imagery were considered crucial PA message communication strategies. Participants viewed health professionals' PA advice as superficial and unhelpful; however, celebrities with PD were considered inspirational messengers. Messages endorsed by trustworthy sources, such as the Parkinson's Society, were perceived to enhance the credibility.

CONCLUSIONS

Effective PA messages should be gain framed and tailored to the target audience. We recommend health professionals provide comprehensive PA advice or consider onward referral. Future research which uses a co-design participatory methodology to collaborate with men with PD from culturally diverse backgrounds and represent all stages of PA behaviour change is recommended to provide comprehensive insights for meaningful, effective, and culturally sensitive PA health messaging.

Communicating Physical Activity with Adolescents: What works? A scoping review protocol

Background: Worldwide, adolescents are not meeting the minimum recommended physical activity (PA) guidelines to achieve health benefits. Awareness of the guidelines among adolescents is low, only 3.6% can report them correctly. The school is an ideal PA promotion setting, no other institute has the same reach or influence on the adolescent population. There is a need for an effective communication strategy for PA messages for adolescents. The purpose of this review is to explore how, when, who, where and what i.e. the content, context and mode of delivery of PA messages to communicate with adolescents to improve their awareness and understanding of PA that will potentially lead to an increase in PA levels. Methods: A scoping review was selected as the most appropriate methodology due to the broad nature of the research question. The PCC mnemonic (Population, concept, context), recommended by the Joanna Briggs Institute, was used to develop the search strategy and research question. This review will follow the scoping review framework developed by Arksey and O'Malley (2005) which was later updated by Levac et al (2010) to ensure the methods are systematic. It will also follow the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews checklist. Sources include databases (CINAHL, Education Source, Scopus, PubMED), grey literature from the World Health Organisation, Global Index Medicus and the reference lists of extracted articles will be checked from the year 1995 onwards. Results: A PRISMA flow diagram will demonstrate the final articles included and results will be presented and summarised as recurring themes. The results will be discussed in relation to existing literature and future implications for research, policy and practice. Conclusion: This will be the first review to explore the PA messaging context among adolescents and the findings will help inform a strategy for communicating PA to adolescents.