‘Walk This Way’ – a pilot of a health coaching intervention to reduce sedentary behaviour and increase low intensity exercise in people with serious mental illness: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

摘要

BackgroundPeople with serious mental illness (SMI) (psychosis, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder) experience a considerable risk of premature mortality because of cardiovascular disease. Recent research has demonstrated that this population spends almost 13 h per day being sedentary. Sedentary behaviour is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease and mortality. Given the potential for physical activity to improve health and well-being in people with SMI, we developed a pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate a coaching intervention aimed at reducing sedentary behaviour and increasing physical activity in people with SMI. Our primary aim was to assess the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention. Secondary aims were to see if the Walk This Way (WTW) intervention decreased sedentary behaviour and increased activity levels.