Empirically-derived “lessons learned” from a peer-led group exercise intervention for aging U.S. Veterans

introduction:

Our previous work demonstrated that Veterans’ Service Organizations (VSOs) can be important partners in efforts to encourage healthy lifestyles among aging Veterans. This study joined community medicine personnel and Veterans Health Administration (VHA) staff with local VSO units (referred to as posts) to establish a network of community-based, peer-led exercise groups.

methods:

We observed all exercise groups in our network at least once. Observers used a structured template to collect data regarding the fidelity of the group’s activities to those outlined in the training sessions for the peer leaders. We  developed a coding scheme by open-coding the data from the observation visits. Using an iterative process, we refined our coding scheme until we were confident that the coding scheme explained all of the relevant aspects of the observations. When we reached consensus on the codes and definitions, we  explored the text for facilitators and barriers to successful sessions.

results:

We identified 15 codes to categorize factors that affected the quality of the group exercise sessions. Of these 15, we found that group leaders, group attributes, and group dynamics were most responsible for the success of a session. Aspects of the physical environment and the logistics of running a group emerged as barriers to participation and the overall success of the session.

conclusions:

Implementing and maintaining a successful community-based exercise program can be challenging. Observing how exercise groups function “in the real world” can provide valuable insight into the factors that encourage—and discourage—uptake of these programs by community members.