Barriers, motivators and facilitators of physical activity in people with dementia and their family carers in England: dyadic interviews

Abstract

Introduction

Physical activity may have a number of physical and mental health benefits for people with dementia and their carers. However, there is limited evidence about factors that influence physical activity participation in these groups. This study therefore looks at the barriers, facilitators and motivators of physical activity in people with dementia, from both the perspective of the person with dementia and their carer.

Method

Thirty participants (15 sets of community-dwelling people with dementia and their family carers) were recruited from the South East of England. The participants took part in semi-structured dyadic interviews about their views of physical activity. Interviews were analysed using inductive thematic analysis at an individual level and comparisons were made between the groups.

Results

Common motivator themes across persons with dementia and family carers were emotional and physical wellbeing, and social connectedness. Physical health was seen as a common barrier in both groups. Physical activity in the person with dementia was encouraged and supported by the family carer. For the carer, their caring role, and limited time acted as barriers to their participation.

Conclusion

Themes such as social connectedness, positive emotion and health were seen as key motivators to physical activity, which indicate that people with dementia and carers use physical activity as a means to maintain and improve their quality of life. Supporting family members to better facilitate such activities could encourage physical activity in people with dementia.

Keywords:

• Dementia
• exercise
• family
• caregivers
• attitudes
• cognitive impairment

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the Alzheimer’s Society and their support through their partnership program. In particular, we would like to acknowledge the support received from Tim Wilkins. The research team acknowledges the support of the National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network (NIHR CRN).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Data statement

For ethical reasons data associated with this study are not available online. Data will be made available upon reasonable request.

This research would not have been possible without the time and effort of the participants that took part in this study.

Beyond approval for our original proposal, neither funding body has had any influence over the design of MODEM, the collection, analysis or interpretation of data, or the writing of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The MODEM study is funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).