
Disability
People with physical disabilities face additional barriers to being physically active but physical activity has particular benefits for people with disabilities. This theme focuses on developing and testing strategies to enable both children and adults with disabilities to be more active. We aim to help reduce the global epidemic of physical inactivity.
Theme Leader
Current research projects & trials
We hope the findings of this project will lead to improved physical activity levels in people living with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). The aim of this project is to develop clinical practice guidelines for physical activity in people across all ages living with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) in Australia. A plan will also be developed for the effective implementation of these guidelines. The first stage involves evaluating the fit of the 2020 WHO physical activity and sedentary behaviour guidelines for people living with disability to those living with a moderate-to-severe TBI. This includes considering the evidence available regarding physical activity in TBI, preferences for physical activity, perspectives of relevant stakeholders and the feasibility of guideline implementation. Stage two involves auditing brain injury rehabilitation services across Australia to understand how physical activity is delivered and promoted to identify current practice and where practice inconsistencies exist. The third stage involves adapting the WHO guidelines into national clinical practice guidelines for people living with TBI, informed from stages one and two. The final stage involves the development of a plan for implementation of these national practice guidelines based on the identification of barriers and facilitators. Principle Investigator: A/Prof Leanne Hassett Co-Investigators: Prof Gavin Williams (UniMelb); Prof Cathie Sherrington (USyd); A/Prof Sean Tweedy (UQ); Prof Luke Wolfenden (UniNewcastle); Prof Maria Crotty (Flinders); Prof Kirsten Howard (USyd); Dr Abby Haynes (USyd); Emeritus Prof Adrian Bauman (USyd); A/Prof Grahame Simpson (USyd); A/Prof Adam Scheinberg (MCRI); Prof Anne Tiedemann (USyd); Gabrielle Vassallo (consumer representative); Nick Rushworth (BIA) Collaborating Organisations: Brain Injury Australia, Connectivity TBI; icare NSW; Heads Together for ABI Research team: Dr Liam Johnson (UniMelb); Sakina Chagpar (USyd); Belinda Wang (USyd) Funding: MRFF 2020 Traumatic Brain Injury Mission, Stream 2-incubator 2021-2023.
We hope the findings of this project lead to enhanced promotion of physical activity by health professionals for people aged 50+ and people of all ages with a physical disability. The aim of the project is to to collaboratively develop and test a strategy to support health professionals to promote PA to their patients – including older adults and children/adolescents/adults with physical disabilities – within their daily clinical practice. The project is currently recruiting participants for phase one of the study-collaborative implementation strategy development. In this phase we will conduct interviews, focus groups, workshops and surveys with health professionals, exercise providers and consumers to identify barriers to PA promotion and collaboratively develop the evidence-based implementation strategies and intervention elements. Phase 2 of the study is a Type 2 hybrid effectiveness-implementation cluster randomised trial (2023 onwards). In Phase 2 we will test the effectiveness of the implementation strategies and intervention elements in a Type 2 hybrid cluster randomised trial recruiting 800 participants across 30 sites. Chief Investigator Professor Cathie Sherrington (IMH) Our team comprises academics, public health experts and health economists from the University of Sydney, UNSW, Western Sydney University and Australian Catholic University, as well as multi-disciplinary clinicians from five Local Health Districts (Sydney, Western Sydney, South-Western Sydney, South-Eastern Sydney and Sydney Children Hospitals Network). Partner organisations include Disability Sport Australia, Australian Physiotherapy Association, Clinical Excellence Commission, iCare and Belgravia Leisure. This project has received ethics approval from Local Health District Ethics Committees and is being funded by an NHMRC Partnership Grant. For more information about this project, please contact: Kate Purcell e: kate.purcell@sydney.edu.au
We hope the findings of this project will lead to improved physical activity levels in patients receiving brief physical activity counselling as part of their physiotherapy treatment. BEHAVIOUR is a hybrid type II cluster randomised controlled trial. The aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of a multi-faceted implementation strategy compared to usual care on increasing the proportion of patients receiving brief physical activity counselling as part of hospital-based physiotherapy care, and subsequently improving the physical activity levels among these patients. Physiotherapists in the intervention group will be assigned to receive the multi-faceted implementation strategy immediately to support them to incorporate brief physical activity counselling into their routine care. The main implementation strategies will include education training, creating a learning collaborative, tailored strategies to address community referral barriers, facilitation and audit and feedback. The control group will receive an updated version of the implementation strategy at the end of the trial. The trial will be conducted with physiotherapists across all hospitals in South Western Sydney Local Health District and will include participants from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Principle Investigator: A/Prof Leanne Hassett Co-Investigators: Professor Catherine Sherrington (USyd), Mr Matthew Jennings (SWSLHD), Dr Marina Pinheiro (USyd), Dr Bernadette Brady (SWSLHD/USyd), Professor Sarah Dennis (Usyd/SWSLHD), Professor Kirsten Howard (USyd), Dr Alison Pearce (USyd), Dr Lauren Christie (St Vincent’s Health Network Australia, ACU/SWSLHD), Ms Balwinder Sidhu (SWSLHD), Professor Colin Greaves (UniBirmingham) Funding: MRFF preventive & public health grant 2020-2023; NHMRC TRIP Fellowship 2019-2020. For more information about this project, please contact: Associate Professor Leanne Hassett e: leanne.hassett@sydney.edu.au
ComeBACK
ComeBACK is a research trial investigating the impact of two intervention programs on the physical activity levels of adults with self-reported walking difficulties. ComeBACK participants received support to be more active. This involved access to a website and printed booklet and may also involve phone coaching or text messages.