Barrado-Martin, Yolanda;
Frost, Rachael;
Catchpole, Jessica;
Rookes, Tasmin Alanna;
Gibson, Sarah;
Avgerinou, Christina;
Gardner, Benjamin;
... Walters, Kate R; + view all
(2025)
Understanding how older people with mild frailty engage with behaviour change to support their independence: a qualitative study.
BMJ Open
, 15
(1)
, Article e086642. 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-086642.
Preview |
Text
Understanding how older people with mild frailty engage with behaviour change to support their independence a qualitative st.pdf - Published Version Download (453kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Objectives: To explore barriers and facilitators to behaviour change in older people with mild frailty. Design: Qualitative study. Setting: Community-dwelling older people living with mild frailty. Participants: 64 older people with mild frailty, workers delivering the service and stakeholders. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted between July 2022 and May 2023 with participants in a randomised controlled trial (‘HomeHealth’) of a 6-month, home-based, personalised goal setting intervention, based around the Capability-Opportunity-Motivation-Behaviour model. We purposively sampled older participants receiving the service (n=49), workers delivering it (n=7) and stakeholders supporting its delivery (n=8). Interviews explored participation experiences, including engagement, perceived progress and impact. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Key themes included frailty symptoms and adapting/compensating for these, self-efficacy and beliefs about capacity or need for change, familiarity with goal-setting processes and health-related knowledge, accessibility of services and outdoor environments, and enabling social support. Participants were empowered to change behaviours with support, where personalised meaningful goals were set. These were maintained where they led to a tangible outcome and had increased self-efficacy; however, new health challenges and lack of intrinsic motivation could be barriers. Conclusions: Regular and continued empathic person-centred support helps empower mildly frail people who are motivated to change their behaviour. Identifying those willing and able to identify their need for change may be key to maximise service use impact. Trial registration number: ISRCTN54268283.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Understanding how older people with mild frailty engage with behaviour change to support their independence: a qualitative study |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-086642 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2024-086642 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ Group. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Division of Psychiatry UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Primary Care and Population Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Division of Psychiatry > Mental Health of Older People |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10208111 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
