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Green Health Partnerships in Scotland; Pathways for Social Prescribing and Physical Activity Referral.

ABSTRACT: Increased exposure to green space has many health benefits. Scottish Green Health Partnerships (GHPs) have established green health referral pathways to enable community-based interventions to contribute to primary prevention and the maintenance of health for those with established disease. This qualitative study included focus groups and semi-structured telephone interviews with a range of professionals involved in strategic planning for and the development and provision of green health interventions (n = 55). We explored views about establishing GHPs. GHPs worked well, and green health was a good strategic fit with public health priorities. Interventions required embedding into core planning for health, local authority, social care and the third sector to ensure integration into non-medical prescribing models. There were concerns about sustainability and speed of change required for integration due to limited funding. Referral pathways were in the early development stages and intervention provision varied. Participants recognised challenges in addressing equity, developing green health messaging, volunteering capacity and providing evidence of success. Green health interventions have potential to integrate successfully with social prescribing and physical activity referral. Participants recommended GHPs engage political and health champions, embed green health in strategic planning, target mental health, develop simple, positively framed messaging, provide volunteer support and implement robust routine data collection to allow future examination of success.

SUBMITTER: McHale S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7560024 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Green Health Partnerships in Scotland; Pathways for Social Prescribing and Physical Activity Referral.

McHale Sheona S Pearsons Alice A Neubeck Lis L Hanson Coral L CL

International journal of environmental research and public health 20200918 18

Increased exposure to green space has many health benefits. Scottish Green Health Partnerships (GHPs) have established green health referral pathways to enable community-based interventions to contribute to primary prevention and the maintenance of health for those with established disease. This qualitative study included focus groups and semi-structured telephone interviews with a range of professionals involved in strategic planning for and the development and provision of green health interve ...[more]

PMID: 32962081

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Project description:AimAs sport and physical activity are vital to support extended health spans, this study aimed to analyse the current trends in sports participation and physical activity rates among individuals aged 65 years and older in Scotland. Data were compared with the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) guidelines and analysed the influence of key factors on participation rates.MethodsThe study used data from the Scottish Health Survey and the Scottish Household Survey (2019) to investigate self-reported participation in physical activity and sports across different age groups. Descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations were used to analyse the relationships between participation rates and influencing factors. Participation data for Parkrun events in Scotland were also analysed for the years 2008-2018.ResultsThe study found a clear decline in sports participation with age, with a steep decline after the age of 65, particularly in women. The majority of participation among individuals aged 65+ was in walking, with a sport participation rate of only 31.2% when walking was excluded. Physical activity and sport participation was lower in women across all age ranges but particularly so in the 75+ age group. The most popular sporting activities in the older age group were keep fit/aerobics, swimming and golf. Additionally, the study found that social deprivation had a major impact on sports participation rates, with the most deprived households exhibiting the lowest participation levels irrespective of age. The prevalence of loneliness was lower among individuals who participated in sports or adhered to the CMO guidelines for moderate/vigorous physical activity and strength-building exercises.DiscussionThe findings of this study have implications for promoting physical activity and sports participation among older adults, particularly in deprived communities. This study highlights the importance of balance exercises within sport and the need for more targeted efforts to increase participation rates among older adults. The study also emphasizes the positive impact of sports participation on reducing loneliness among older adults. Overall, the findings suggest the need for ongoing efforts to promote physical activity and sports participation among older adults to improve their overall health and well-being.

Project description:BACKGROUND: Although the benefits of physical activity (PA) on to prevent and manage non-communicable diseases are well known, strategies to help increase the levels of PA among different populations are limited. Exercise-referral schemes have emerged as one effective approach to promote PA; however, there is uncertainty about the feasibility and effectiveness of these schemes in settings outside high-income countries. This study will examine the effectiveness of a scheme to refer hypertensive patients identified in Primary Health Care facilities (PHCU) of the Mexican social security institution to a group PA program offered in the same institution. METHODS AND DESIGN: We will describe the methods of a cluster randomized trial study designed to evaluate the effectiveness of an exercise referral scheme to increasing physical activity in hypertensive patients compared to a non-referral scheme. Four PHCU were selected for the study; the PHCU will take part as the unit of randomization and sedentary hypertensive patients as the unit of assessment. 2 PHCU of control group (GC) will provide information to hypertensive patients about physical activity benefits and ways to increase it safely. 2 PHCU of intervention group (IG) will refer patients to sports facilities at the same institution, to follow a group-based PA program developed to increase the PA levels with a designed based on the Transtheoretical Model and Social Cognitive Theory. To evaluate the effects of the intervention as well as short-term maintenance of the intervention's effects, PA will be assessed at baseline, at 24 and 32 weeks of follow-up.The main outcome will be the difference before and after intervention in the percentage of participants meeting recommended levels of PA between and within intervention and control groups. PA will be measured through self-report and with objective measure by accelerometer. DISCUSSION: This study will allow us to evaluate a multidisciplinary effort to link the primary care and community-based areas of the same health care system. Our findings will provide important information about the feasibility and effectiveness of an exercise-referral scheme and will be useful for decision-making about the implementation of strategies for increasing PA among hypertensive and other clinical populations in Mexico and Latin America. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01910935. Date of registration: 07/05/2013.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Programs promoting population health through physical activity (PA) and exposure to nature are popular, but few have been evaluated in randomized-controlled trials (RCTs). OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effectiveness of a park prescription intervention (PPI) for improving total moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), other PA related behaviors, quality of life (QoL) and cardio-metabolic health among adults. METHODS:Healthy individuals aged 40 to 65?years were recruited through community health screenings and randomly assigned to 1) PPI: face-to-face Park Prescription + invitation to weekly exercise sessions in parks, or 2) control: standard PA materials. After the six-month intervention, participants completed accelerometer assessments, questionnaires on health behaviors and QoL, and health screenings. Independent sample t-tests were used to compare outcomes between groups, with secondary analysis adjusted for co-variates via multiple linear regression. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS:Eighty participants were allocated to each group. Participants with mean age of 51.1 (Standard Deviation: 6.3) years were predominantly female (79%) and of Chinese ethnicity (81%). Participation in the group exercise started at 48% and declined to 24% by week 26. At six-months, 145 (91%) participants attended health screenings for outcome measure collection, and 126 (79%) provided valid accelerometer data. Time spent in MVPA favored the PPI group but this difference was not statistically significant (4.4 (-?43.8, 52.7) minutes/week; when removing 2 extreme outliers 26.8 (-?9.7, 63.4) minutes/week). Time spent in parks (147.5 (2.1, 292.9) minutes/month), PA in parks (192.5 (59.5, 325.5) minutes/month), and recreational PA (48.7 (1.4, 96.0) minutes/week) were significantly greater in the PPI group. PPI also significantly improved psychological QoL (4.0 (0.0, 8.0). DISCUSSION:PPI improved park use, PA in parks, recreational PA, and psychological QoL but not total MVPA. Future RCTs' are warranted to investigate PPI in different target populations and to provide further evidence for improvements in health outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION:ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02615392, 26 November 2015.

Dataset Information

Green Health Partnerships in Scotland; Pathways for Social Prescribing and Physical Activity Referral.

Publications

Green Health Partnerships in Scotland; Pathways for Social Prescribing and Physical Activity Referral.

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