Exercise and motivational text messaging to support physical activity behaviour change in a population with obstructive sleep apnoea: a feasibility study
Sarah Rhodes
1 * , Debra Waters 2 , Ben Brockway 3 , Margot Skinner 1
1 School of Physiotherapy, University of Otago, 325 Great King Street, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand.
2 Department of Medicine/School of Physiotherapy, University of Otago, 325 Great King Street, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand.
3 Department of Medicine, University of Otago, 201 Great King Street, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Journal of Primary Health Care 14(4) 318-325 https://doi.org/10.1071/HC22033
Published: 14 July 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Introduction: Patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) commonly present in primary care. Increasing physical activity reduces symptoms and severity of OSA. Low motivation is a barrier to physical activity in adults with OSA.
Aim: To investigate the feasibility and acceptability of an exercise and personalised text messaging programme to enhance motivation and support physical activity behaviour change in adults with OSA.
Methods: Participants were recruited from the local Sleep Clinic. Exclusion criteria were unstable angina, and/or poorly controlled hypertension. The intervention comprised three groups, who received either individual exercise prescription, personalised text messages or both over a 24-week period. Participants were allocated to one of the three groups. The primary outcome was feasibility of study design including participant recruitment and retention. Secondary outcomes were a change in 6-min walk distance and exercise self-efficacy over time.
Results: Thirty participants were recruited, 17 male and 13 female, with a mean age of 54.6 years. The study design appears feasible and the outcome measures used were acceptable to participants. Recruitment and retention rates were lower than anticipated. A trend towards increased functional exercise capacity was identified in all three groups, along with a corresponding increase in exercise self-efficacy over time.
Discussion: Exercise and personalised text messaging both appear to offer an acceptable and feasible means to increase physical activity in adults with OSA. A larger scale trial may provide justification for physiotherapist input to support patients with OSA to address physical inactivity.
Keywords: behaviour change, health promotion, motivation, obstructive sleep apnoea, physical activity, physiotherapy, sleep health, telehealth.
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