Exercise via e-Health for a Lifestyle Exchange in Type 2 Diabetes

The intervention is an eHealth Program that consists of participants being provided with a device and undertaking 4x2 hour sessions that will educate them on how to use the device and how to reach the physical activity goals. The device is called a Mio Fuse wristband. It uses an LED light to illuminate the capillaries around the participants wrist, tracking the velocity of the blood flow and thus, heart rate. Physical Activity Intelligence (PAI) is calculated by an algorithm in the device that uses the participant's heart rate, awarding them with a number of PAI depending on the intensity of the exercise with the goal of reaching 100 PAI per week. The intervention will be delivered by a research assistant with a minimum 2 years' experience in clinical exercise physiology. The sessions will be face to face in a group environment and held at The University of Queensland, St.Lucia weekly for 4 weeks. The participants will be expected to wear the device continuously (except for when it needs to be removed for charging) for the purposes of this study for 12 months. During the first session, 1-hour will be used to introduce participants to the concept of self monitoring for physical activity and PAI, including how to use the PAI App on their smartphone, activate the heart rate recording on the wristband, connect with activity buddies and to interpret PAI data. Thereafter, 1-hour “PAI-playtime” will be undertaken; the research assistant will introduce participants to different modalities of endurance exercises (such as walking, swimming, running, cycling, strength training etc.) in short bouts of 5-10 minutes at different intensities demonstrating different ways to “earn” PAI. Between each weekly session, participants will explore and practice using the PAI App aiming to earn 100 PAI before the next group session. The following 3 group sessions will each follow this format, 1-hour will be used for “interpretative assistance” to make sure they have correctly understood the PAI concept, share experiences using the PAI App, and problem solving; and 1 hour for “PAI-playtime”. At end of Stage 1 participants will be given a booklet describing examples of exercise sessions that they experienced at Stage 1.