Regular physical activity is healthy, especially for patients and former patients. There is already a patchwork of initiatives to encourage regular exercise for these groups. Sports and exercise physician Hans Zwerver and human movement scientist Inge van den Akker-Scheek, together with many parties and (ex)patients, want to make more connections between all these initiatives.
The goal of both is that ex-patients start being physically active more and, above all, keep moving when they are out of care. They received a €1.8 million grant from ZonMW for this.
No, they are not going to set up new initiatives or clubs. Instead, they will look for the best ways to connect all the initiatives that are already there. This should ensure that someone can keep moving at all times. Inge van den Akker-Scheek: ‘An increasing number of hospitals have a lifestyle care counter where lifestyle coaches give advice and guidance to initiatives in the region. Sports organisations and municipalities also have all kinds of initiatives to get people to move more. But we have found that the transition from exercise in healthcare setting to independent exercise at home is very difficult. Then the support falls away and it is difficult for these ex-patients to keep moving. A lot of initiatives do not fit together. We want to develop a good ongoing exercise journey for (former) patients. In this way, the transition from exercise in healthcare to eventually sports and exercise at home or at a sports club improves.'
In four regions -Amsterdam, Drenthe, Haaglanden and Zeeland- researchers will make an inventory of all existing initiatives in the field of exercise. They will then look at how exercise journeys are organised and what works well and what does not. This will allow the regions to learn from each other. Inge van den Akker-Scheek: ‘This is about social innovation. Here, (former) patients, care and welfare, the sports and exercise world and government pull together. We want to bring people together, create networks. All with the aim of getting everyone to move more permanently.'
According to Van den Akker-Scheek, the Beweeghuis in Limburg is an example where such a network has already been realised. 'There, professionals know how to find each other well. All local exercise initiatives are known to them. From the Beweeghuis, they offer every patient options for exercise. They find out what suits each patient best. And they make sure that that patient comes into contact with such a neighbourhood initiative, walking club or cycling club.' They are going to share their knowledge and practical experience in this study. Conversely, they are going to use new knowledge from other regions.
According to Zwerver, it has now been proven how useful it is to make patients as fit as possible to undergo surgery. 'Through prehabilitation, they receive an exercise programme prior to surgery. This is an example of a group that has an interest in exercising as much as possible, even after they are discharged from hospital and care.' And continuing to exercise outside the care environment is just as important for people with all kinds of chronic conditions, he says. In Scandinavia, he saw examples of sports teams for patient groups. 'These were then created from within the hospital. Those teams would then be called, for example, FC Diabetes or FC Prostate Carcinoma. If they join an existing sports club, that can be valuable for everyone. They can continue to use the club's facilities and for an association it can lead to membership gains.'
For Zwerver, the project is successful if, from the experiences in the four regions, a so-called Exercise Journey Compass has been created. 'This then contains an action plan on the content of a continuous exercise journey, on how to set it up and how it can continue. That can then be used by all regions in the Netherlands.' Furthermore, he wants to raise awareness among sports and healthcare professionals about the importance of these groups keeping moving. 'And very important is also that this will have a bigger place in education. Both in MBO and HBO exercise education, but also in medical education. As a result, exercise can become part of the therapeutic arsenal. I want the importance of as much exercise as possible to permeate the capillaries of both healthcare and the sports and exercise world. This will ultimately enable as many people as possible to benefit from the positive effects of exercise'.
In this Beweegreiskompas study, researchers from UMC Groningen, Beweeghuis, Amsterdam UMC, Maastricht University, Hogeschool Inholland Amsterdam, De Haagse Hogeschool, Hanzehogeschool Groningen and HZ University of Applied Sciences are collaborating with a large number of patient, sports, exercise, healthcare, welfare, government and educational organisations. Leading the research are Hans Zwerver (professor of sports and exercise medicine at the Centre for Exercise Science and sports physician), Rob Vanwersch (programme manager Beweeghuis) and Inge van den Akker-Scheek (exercise scientist/epidemiologist UMCG Department of Orthopaedics).
