Access to exercise for people with long-term health conditions

Exercise offers many physical and mental health benefits. However, Healthwatch Barnet regularly receives feedback from people with long-term health conditions about the challenges they face in relation to physical activity and exercise.

To find out what would help, they surveyed 113 people in Barnet and conducted in-depth interviews with 12 of them. Their recommendations can be found on page 7 of the report.

The report sets out the good practice they found. It also outlines changes which could be made to ensure that long-term health conditions do not prevent people from taking part in physical activity. This approach is in line with the Social Model of Disability, which was developed by Disabled people and describes people as being disabled by barriers in society, rather than by an impairment or health condition.

Some key findings

• Physical health: when we asked about barriers to exercise, 63% (n=56) of survey respondents either selected ‘my physical health issues limit exercise’ or selected ‘other’ and described barriers related to physical ill-health. There is clear scope to increase accessibility to ensure that these physical health issues do not prevent people from exercising.
• Access to healthcare: when asked what would encourage them to exercise, 35% (n=31) people chose advice from a GP or health professional.
• Cost: 52% (n=59) of respondents had no disposable income; 23% (n=26) had small amounts of disposable income. Unsurprisingly, several interviewees identified cost as a barrier to, for example, joining a gym.