Have you taken part in the DoMore Study?

Have you taken part in the DoMore Study?

The DoMore study aims to find new ways for young wheelchair users to move more in their daily routines, by co-designing a new digitally enabled, evidence-based intervention. Our first of four online workshops, which focuses on understanding the problem of sedentary behaviour of young people who are unable to walk, is open now. You can register to take part on our website. There are two ways to take part. You can contribute to our anonymous online workshop (open 24 / 7 allowing you to take part at a convenient time for you and to log in and out as often as you want to), or via a virtual focus group on Microsoft teams if you prefer a face-to-face conversation.

The groups of people who can take part in the co-design are:

• Children and young people aged 12-25 years, who are unable to walk (or only walk using a body support walker) due to a lifelong disability, and live in the UK
• Family members of children and young people who are under 25 years of age and are unable to walk due to a lifelong disability (or only walk using a body support walker)
• Education and healthcare professionals who work with these children and young people in the UK.
• Experts and academics interested in disability, sedentary behaviour and physical activity, behaviour change, intervention development or digital health interventions from anywhere in the world.

All physiotherapists who work with non-ambulant young people under 25 can take part. Please let families you work with know about the study so they can get involved too, as we’d like to hear as many voices as possible. If you’d like to know more, have a listen to Marilyn Bradbury (Chief Investigator) and Nathan Giles (DoMore’s public and patient involvement representative), talking to Paul Frank’s on BBC Radio WM here or watch our accessible public engagement video, featuring Paralympian Hannah Dines.

Children with disabilities spend more time being sedentary than children who don’t have a disability. Being sedentary means sitting or lying down whilst awake, and not using much energy. Evidence suggests long periods of sedentary time can increase the risk of poor health, for example obesity, cardiac conditions and type II diabetes. There are no evidence-based interventions to help young people with disabilities to reduce their sedentary time. The intervention we develop in the DoMore study will be the first of its kind. 

DoMore is a national study lead by Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and is part of Marilyn’s Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship, funded by the National Institute of Health Research and the Sport Inspired charity. Marilyn is supervised by Professor Joan Duda and Dr Sally Fenton from the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences and Dr Sue Neilson from the School of Nursing at the University of Birmingham.

Marilyn Bradbury

Chief Investigator - DoMore study