Sheffield Hallam calls for participants to come forward for heart failure virtual rehabilitation study

Active lifestyles Health

Older people taking part in an exercise class with resistance bands.

The study is being run by Sheffield Hallam University in collaboration with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London. It is a novel, targeted lifestyle intervention programme, aimed at people living with heart failure, that runs wholly online with a team of academics supporting participants with lifestyle workshops and exercise classes throughout the summer.

Heart failure is defined as a difficulty for the heart to properly pump blood to the rest of the body, which could be due to pump muscle weakness or increased pressure inside the pump, resulting in stiffness of the muscle. Physical activity enhances the heart’s ability to pump out blood and therefore improves the individual’s ability to perform general daily activities.

Physical activity rehabilitation programmes have been cut short under the Covid-19 lockdowns, exacerbating the issues that existed before the pandemic with services overstretched and demand exceeding availability. It is hoped that the study will provide knowledge for how these services can be effectively delivered more widely in the future.

Dr Markos Klonizakis, project lead at Sheffield Hallam University, said: “We hope that this study will allow us to see if and how an 8-week, online rehabilitation programme can be offered alongside or as a substitute to physical face-to-face rehabilitation delivery. We are also hopeful that the way the programme is designed, will support our participants more effectively, without being just another series of virtual exercise classes.”

The study has been funded by a Sheffield Hallam University Creating Knowledge grant and will run until September 2021.

People who are interested in taking part in the study are encouraged to contact Mr Grigoropoulos-Lilley: cg8265@exchange.shu.ac.uk