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Table 4 Example quotations from study groups

From: The feasibility and RE-AIM evaluation of the TAME health pilot study

 

Electronic activity monitor

Pedometer

Stakeholder

TAME health study

Q: Do you think that your attitude towards exercise has changed? It’s a good idea. I think, I would really advise it for anybody that wants to try and get themselves going. I think belonging to something like this is a really good idea. Female, 73

Q: Do you think that your attitude towards exercise has changed? That was an education for me. Just to wear it and to see how much I actually did in a day’s time. Female, 72

Q: What are your thoughts about the study? Even though people dropped out and there was damage with some of the monitors, just the fact that every group increased their activities and their steps. I think you can definitely tell that this encouraged and motivated them to be more active than they usually would have been.

Self-Monitoring

Q: Do you think you’ll continue using a monitor like this? I even would like to get one for myself and my husband so we can both keep track of our activity. Female, 73

Q: Do you think you’ll continue using a monitor like this? I would probably go out and buy one because I think it’s really good psychologically, to have something that you can actually see. Female, 72

Q: Would you recommend your patient to use this monitor? If we didn’t have it to give to them, they couldn’t afford it.

Q: Do you currently advise your patients to monitor their activity? There’s certain patients that you know are going to be engaged in that way and others that if you told them that was an additional step that would maybe turn them away from it.

Pedometer

 

Q: Thinking about the monitor you used, what did you like about it? I like the convenience of knowing how active I’ve been or how inactive that I’ve been, and what time frame. Female, 72

Q: What didn’t you like about it? It also irritated my belly, you know that’s where I had it sitting. Female, 66

Q: What didn’t you like about it? You had to have it in a certain position on your waist or it wouldn’t read. I had a week where it didn’t read for a few days. Male, 56

Q: Would you recommend your patients to use this pedometer? The belt clip ones, well relatively, they’re the ones that are bound to go in the toilet or dropped.

UP24

Q: Thinking about the monitor you used, what did you like about it? I liked the Jawbone because it was comfortable. I would put it on in the morning and I never felt it again. It didn’t bother me at all, and it’s not awful looking. Female, 55

 

Q: Would you recommend your patients use this monitor? I think that recommending this to someone who is comfortable with technology. Otherwise, if you go bombard them with all these types of data and statistics, they may not know exactly what it is they they’re looking at.

 

Q: What didn’t you like about it? No complaints except that they’re going out of business. That’s why I didn’t buy one. Female, 68

Q: What didn’t you like about it? My neighbor was in the program also, ahead of me… She was energized and she had the iPad, which is more conducive or complimentary with it. I have an [Android] tablet. So the interface for me was not as gratifying as hers. It worked again me which I didn’t need. Female, 68

 

Q: Would you recommend your patients use this monitor? I would think something like this for most people in this room works. We all have smartphones, but in terms of the patients we see. I would say maybe one out of every 10 have a smartphone. A good portion of them don’t have Internet at home so connecting to an app or something like this is pretty… even though it’s prettier and great for us it may not be useful for an older population.

Social support on UP app

Q: How often did you communicate with other participants? I was on there maybe a week when I met cowboy. She kept hitting goal and she had a small goal because she [had] knee surgery and I said ‘do you want to meet to walk?’ I just assumed everybody was in Galveston.

Well she wasn’t, she was in League City. So we met in Texas City. Female, 64

Q: How often did you communicate with other participants? If I saw that somebody had done a lot that day I would give them a thumbs up and stuff like that… and then other people would encourage me and I didn’t know who they were either but their icon. Female, 68

Q: How often did you communicate with other participants? I understand the rationale for the anonymity but I’m just sitting here thinking now, that for me, probably if I met everybody I would have been much more social. Female, 61

 

Q: Would you recommend your patients use this monitor? Even for me as an adult. I have friends that we do like that challenges that you can do. Even as adults that’s something we do very regularly. So see who can win.

Counseling from the counselor

Q: Did you like receiving counseling from a counselor? I think that’s good to have somebody else that maybe is a little more informed than your family or your friends or even reading about it. It is good just to have a face to face. Female, 73

Q: Did you like receiving counseling from a counselor? [I felt] very, very comfortable. It was not like that she was speaking above my head and I’m going ‘I don’t have any idea what she’s talking about’… like I said, she was always very supportive and I think that made the big difference too. Female, 72

 

Counseling from health care provider

Q: Would you prefer the counseling done by your primary care physician? No. I’ve got a great primary care physician here but I love that it was separate from that. Ya know, because that’s my medical and this is my health. Female, 61

Q: Would you prefer the counseling done by your primary care physician? No, I don’t think I would especially like that because I don’t think the primary care physician has time enough. They’re usually trying to take care of whatever your current problem is. They want to hit on several different things and I don’t think exercise or diet is big in their specialty area. They just either don’t take the time or don’t know enough about it to individualize it for you. So I think it’s better to have someone else do that. Female, 73

Q: Would you prefer the counseling done by a nurse, physician assistant, or anyone else who worked with your doctor? It’s just like those two things seem to be separate in my mind. I just feel like they, everybody in the doctor’s office is so busy. With [the counselor], I felt that she had all the time in the world to deal with me. Female, 66

Q: Would you prefer the counseling done by your primary care physician? [My physician] takes care of my booboos and my ouches and ooze and ‘what-the-heckes’ kind of stuff. This other thing… I mean, they’ll sit and tell you ‘you need to exercise Hunny’ but they don’t’ really give you a plan or that’s just not their job. Female, 72

Q: Would you prefer the counseling done by a nurse, physician assistant, or anyone else who worked with your doctor? In my opinion a nurse or a doctor, they’re not… they’re a doctor. They can give you some advice on how to… what you need to do but as far as how to get it done, that’s not their area of study. Male, 5 6

Q: Would you use this counseling with your patients? It just depends…if there was a part of the process that said, hey the social worker can go in and do the counseling for this [patient] versus taking away a MA or a nurse that would be maybe triaging or drawing blood or doing something else.

Q: Would you use this counseling with your patients? Would I tell my nurse to do that? Yes. Or would I ask my nurse to do that and would she participate in that, yes. I mean, I think I do have support staff that will do that. Do I think it’s important? Absolutely.

5A’s structure

Q: Of the counseling components, which did you value the most? You have to advise with assess. Without… looking at those numbers probably would not have meant as much. Female, 64

Q: Of the counseling components, which did you value the most? Maybe number 2 [advise]… If I was going to do this, I was going to do what I was told to do. Female, 72

Q: Have you done 5 A’s counseling in your clinic? I’ve actually done it without knowing it. It’s pretty much what I do with patients.

 

Q: Of the counseling components, which did you value the most? I think with [the counselor] suggesting, well maybe you can start with at least 5000 [steps], it gave me something to work toward. So I eventually did get there and I even got up to where it was not unusual for me to get 10,000 steps. Female, 61

Q: Of the counseling components, which did you value the most? Agree, reach agreement, that helped too because you can set a goal then. Male, 56

 

Exercise prescription

Q: Did you find the written prescription helpful? It was [helpful]. I have a hard time remembering things and forming habits so this was up on my board. So I saw it every day. I would say ‘Oh that’s right my goal’s 7000’ what do I have, oh I only have 4 [thousand], I better go for a walk. That helped, but it was a starting point and it was necessary. Female, 64

Q: Did you find the written prescription helpful? Everything I got was really [an] eye opener because of seeing it in writing, and it’s just to you. It’s not the household or anything. It’s only up to you to do these things that are listed here. So that was a good prescription. A good incentive to look and see. Female, 72

Q: Do you like the counseling? To me it seems the prescription was almost more motivating in the sense that now they have something they received from a clinician that says, this is what I recommend to you.