Abstract
Background: Despite strong evidence supporting walking-based physical activity interventions for management of MS symptoms, persons with MS engage in significantly less physical activity than their healthy peers. To understand why persons with MS engage in less physical activity, it’s important that we understand how persons with MS interact with their surroundings.
Objective: To describe which aspects of walking-related movement matter to persons with MS and to understand the impact such movements have on how persons with MS participate in their homes and communities.
Methods: Study design was consumer informed through co-design and member checking with persons with MS. Participants were asked to take photographs of real-world situations in which walking impairment impacted how they participate in activities. After two-weeks, participants attended a semi-structured interview, where they discussed their photos with regards to how the captured surroundings impacted their participation in the home or community. Inductive thematic analysis was used to generate themes.
Results: Participants (n=17, Female:13) from across Australia (WA:7, SA:1, ACT:1, VIC:5, NSW:3) with mild to severe MS-related disability (EDSS: 0.0-6.0) completed data collection. Four themes and twelve subthemes were developed: the context (home, community, commute); the conditions (physical environment, accessibility, people); MS symptoms (walking confidence, walking volume, walking quality); and the impact (to feel, to change, to decide).
Conclusion: Themes of the context, conditions and MS symptoms collectively describe where and how persons with MS interact with their surroundings and these were similar between participants. ‘The impact’ illustrated how such interactions impact participation in the home and community, and these were highly individualised.