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Pushing through the Barriers: Peer Advice to Increase Physical Activity and Reduce Dementia Risk from Participants in a Massive Open Online Alzheimer’s Focused Course

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posted on 2023-09-27, 01:38 authored by MR Abela, H Maxwell, A Bindoff, J Alty, M Farrow, Katherine LawlerKatherine Lawler
Background: Engagement in physical activity is associated with reduced dementia risk but insufficient physical activity is a global trend. Objectives: We aimed to explore what advice might be offered to others to increase physical activity and to identify enablers and barriers to physical activity for adults interested in dementia prevention and participating in a massive open online course. Participants: Two thousand, one hundred and thirty-two participants contributed to an online discussion forum. Design: Analysis was conducted using Topic modelling analysis followed by thematic analysis. Results: The themes generated from the discussion posts included time constraints, poor health and lack of motivation as barriers to physical activity, and social interaction, incidental activities, and dog ownership as enablers. Peer advice was frequently suggested around scheduling physical activity into the day and joining a friend or organised activity. Conclusion: This online discussion forum uniquely captured ideas from a large, diverse group of participants. Future research may benefit from further examining the role of discussion forums and peer advice in dementia risk reduction initiatives.

History

Publication Date

2023-09-01

Journal

The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease

Volume

10

Pagination

10p. (p. 503-512)

Publisher

Springer Nature

ISSN

2274-5807

Rights Statement

© The Authors 2023 This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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