Research looking into how exercise rehabilitation can help long-term ills
UNIVERSITIES IN HOLISTIC APPROACH TO THOSE WITH MULTIPLE CONDITIONS
RESEARCHERS in Leicester are developing a programme to provide exercise-based rehabilitation to people living with multiple longterm health conditions.
The Perform study (Personalised Exercise-Rehabilitation for people with Multiple long-term conditions) is being funded by a £2.9 million grant from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR).
There are a growing number of people living with more than one long-term health condition as care improves and life expectancy has increased.
However, health care services often only address one condition at a time. People with more than one condition often have complex needs that are not always met by this approach.
The researchers hope to produce a personalised exercise rehabilitation programme for people living with multiple long-term health conditions that factors in these complex needs.
Exercise-based rehabilitation is currently used to support patients with a range of conditions including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure and chronic renal disease.
The aim is to reduce the impact of symptoms on quality of life, rather than treat the condition itself, yet is usually disease-specific.
The project is led by researchers in Leicester and the University of Glasgow and supported by the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, a partnership between the University of Leicester and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.
Professor Sally Singh, co-lead of the project and Professor of Cardiac
We will take a personalised, patientcentred and holistic approach to exercise rehabilitation Sally Singh
and Pulmonary Rehabilitation at the University of Leicester and Leicester Hospitals, said: “We know that people who undergo respiratory or cardiac exercise-based rehabilitation see a real improvement in their quality of life, a reduction in their symptoms and an increased ability to carry out their day-to-day tasks. “However, we’ve also heard from a lot of people with multiple longterm conditions that current rehabilitation programmes don’t meet their needs.
“This programme will take a more personalised, patient-centred, and holistic approach to exercise rehabilitation.
“People will undergo individual assessments of their needs so we can focus on improving what matters most to them.” The research team will work with people living with multiple long-term health conditions, current rehabilitation service users, and healthcare workers to design the new programme.
It will then be tested in clinical trials across the UK to investigate the benefit to patients.
The team is also working with experts from the Universities of Birmingham, Exeter, Salford, York and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
Professor Rod Taylor, of the University of Glasgow, said: “The traditional approach of rehabilitation, which focuses on single diseases, limits what we can offer to the wider population with multiple long-term conditions who could benefit from these services.
“This NIHR grant represents an exciting opportunity for us to address this important issue.”