None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Participating in physical activity reduces pain and improves function in knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients. Despite this, only 13% of people with knee OA meet the current physical activity guidelines, far lower than the national average. Identifying effective, low-cost, accessible, scalable and sustainable strategies to promote physical activity in knee OA patients is crucial. ‘parkrun’ is a free weekly mass community event that represents a novel setting with substantial untapped potential for physical activity promotion. The aim of this study is to assess the feasibility, acceptability and safety of parkrun for patients with knee OA. Participants will be asked to participate in four consecutive Saturday parkruns and complete quantitative and qualitative interviews about their experience. Participants will be followed-up after 6 months to assess longer-term impacts and adherence. Study findings will inform the development of a large RCT aiming to examine parkrun as a strategy to promote physical activity for knee OA and study its effectiveness compared to usual care. This will be the first study to examine parkrun as a novel physical activity promotion strategy for knee OA patients. This is a group of patients in need of innovative strategies to promote physical activity participation. Given the “parkrun phenomenon” has hit 17 countries around the world and consists of 400,000+ Australian members, this project has potential for broad national and international implementation.
Interventions
Participants will be asked to participate in four consecutive Saturday parkruns, supervised by a member of our research staff. The project will take place in Southern Tasmania, utilising the weekly parkrun event on the Queens Domain.
parkrun is a 5 km volunteer led community run/walk event held weekly on Saturday mornings all around the world. Participants receive a barcode upon registration which is matched to a finishing position and run time. Each registered individual receives an email wit
Participants will be asked to participate in four consecutive Saturday parkruns, supervised by a member of our research staff. The project will take place in Southern Tasmania, utilising the weekly parkrun event on the Queens Domain. parkrun is a 5 km volunteer led community run/walk event held weekly on Saturday mornings all around the world. Participants receive a barcode upon registration which is matched to a finishing position and run time. Each registered individual receives an email with their personal result and all runners’ results are published publicly on the parkrun website each week. Participants in parkrun consist of a broad demographic of people including walkers, joggers and runners and include a wide variety of ability levels from people starting their fitness journey to elite level. In this study, participants will be asked to walk in four (preferably consecutive) parkrun events, supervised by a member of our research staff. Participants will be able to end their participation in each event early if they are unable to complete the full 5 km. An exercise physiotherapist with >3 years’ experience in supervising group exercise sessions will be present at all parkrun events and will ensure the exercise is performed safely. Physiotherapists are qualified to advise patients about recognising an “unsafe” symptom exacerbation – using an 11-point numeric rating scale (NRS-11) to score walking pain. If symptoms rise above unsafe levels, participants will be advised to rest and the intensity will be reduced appropriately. Adherence will be monitored by attendance at each individual parkrun. If a participant does not attend one of the parkrun's they will be contacted to determine why they did not attend and if they are continuing with the study. If a participant chooses to withdraw from the study, some brief questions about why (detailed in our early withdrawal script) will be asked and recorded with participant permission. Our physiotherapist will be in attendance at each parkrun to encourage participants and ensure their participation in the event is safe.
Sponsors
Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania
Study design
Allocation
Non-randomised trial
Primary purpose
Treatment
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
45 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
1) Males and females aged 45 or over; 2) Have clinically diagnosed knee OA (according to the American College of Rheumatology criteria); 3) Have had symptomatic knee OA for at least 6 months with a pain visual analogue scale (VAS) score of at least 40mm/100mm over the last 7 days; 4) Are not currently meeting the physical activity guidelines of moderate to vigorous level activity for >150 min/week or walking >10,000 steps/day. 5) Have no difficulty in walking a city block (75-100 metres). 6) Be willing and available to participate in four consecutive parkrun events and undertake pre-involvement screening, post-parkrun interviews and the 6 month follow-up. 7) Are able to give informed consent
Exclusion criteria
1) Severe knee pain (on standing greater than 80mm/100mm on VAS); 2) Any condition or injury that precludes participation in exercise, including failing the Adult Pre-Exercise Screening Tool (Stage 1) 3) Unable to give informed consent
Outcome results
None listed