HEPA Europe 2026 - Oral Presentation
Daire presented her PhD research on the ULMedEx project in a 10-minute oral presentation, part of a session on Health Promoting Sports Clubs and Communities. Her talk was titled "Will I, won't I? What influences the decision to take up a community-based exercise programme for chronic disease?"
Community-based exercise referral schemes can make a real difference for people living with conditions like cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and respiratory illness, but getting people to sign up and keep showing up is unpredictable. Most research looks at individual motivation, but Daire's study dug into something less explored: how the way a programme is designed and delivered shapes those decisions.
She spoke to 34 people taking part in ULMedEx, a 12-week community-based exercise programme (14 with cardiovascular disease, 9 with type 2 diabetes, and 11 with respiratory conditions) through a mix of small group and one-to-one interviews (10 group sessions and 8 individual interviews, averaging about an hour each). The interviews were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and then mapped onto a behaviour-change framework (COM-B, part of the Behaviour Change Wheel).
Eight themes were developed. Three stood out as shaping whether people took up the programme in the first place: getting clear, consistent information at the point of diagnosis or referral; having a trusted healthcare professional effectively vouch for the programme as safe and worthwhile; and experiencing joined-up follow-up including timely contact, smooth transitions from hospital-based rehab, and proactive outreach from the programme itself. Once people were in the door, five further factors kept them coming back: predictable structure (fixed times, consistent routines, feedback on progress); a genuine sense of belonging in a supportive group; the programme actually being affordable and logistically manageable; feeling safe and trusting the instructors' guidance; and, for many, simply being in the right place personally to engage, something shaped by where they were in their recovery and how much choice they felt they had.
The standout finding was what determined whether that initial willingness turned into actual participation was opportunity: clear pathways in, trusted endorsement, dependable follow-up, and a structured, welcoming environment once they arrived. That points to a practical implication in which programmes that focus on building in safety, legitimacy, routine and social connection may do more to support long-term engagement than approaches that assume the main barrier is a lack of motivation alone.
