Background
Purpose
Methods
Intervention context
Football club
|
Partners
|
Nature of their role
|
---|---|---|
Bristol Rovers |
Alzheimer’s Society
| Providing initial and on-going advice about working with OA and the referral of OA. |
South Gloucester Council
| Financial support along with advice on the local strategic fit and how the project fitted with their priorities. | |
Colchester United |
Age Concern Colchester
| Identifying five day centres to host the PA delivery and specific guidance the delivery of PA for OA. |
Colchester Borough Council
| Providing a broad knowledge of local issues and arranging additional support/access to services e.g. Health visitors. | |
Rotherham United |
NHS Rotherham
| To lead in the development of the project, build capacity and provide continued support and guidance. |
Age Concern Rotherham
| To provide and share information relevant for delivering a bespoke OA intervention. | |
Scunthorpe United |
NHS North Lincolnshire
| To play a key role in developing the pilot intervention and assist in gaining access too hard to reach groups. |
N. Lincolnshire Council
| Providing advice on intervention development and OA referrals to the ET project. | |
QPR |
Open Age
| Provide advice and recommend delivery strategies for OA |
Target group | Intervention design/content | ||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Activity | |||||||||||||||||||
Club | Gender | Age | Ethnicity | Disability | Mode | Venue for classes | Physical activity | Social activity | Health education | ||||||||||
m | f | 50-59 | 60-69 | 70-79 | 80+ | WB | BME | YES | No | Match day | Class | Stadia/club facility | Community venue | Foot ball | Gym | Other | Games | ||
1* | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
2** | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||
3* | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
4** | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
5** | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||
6** | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
7* | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
8* | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
9* | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
10** | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||
11** | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
12** | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
13* | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
14* | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||
15** | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
16** | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||
17** | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
18** | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||
19** | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
20** | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Methods of data capture
Statistical analysis
Qualitative data analysis
Results
Socio-demographic profile of ET participants
Percentage of participants (n)
| ||
---|---|---|
Socio demographics
| ||
Gender (n = 486) |
Male
| 40.3 (196) |
Female
| 59.7 (290) | |
Age (n = 486) |
50-54
| 5.3 (26) |
55-59
| 4.5 (22) | |
60-64
| 21.6 (105) | |
65-69
| 18.9 (92) | |
70-74
| 14.8 (72) | |
75-79
| 14.0 (68) | |
80+
| 20.8 (101) | |
Ethnicity (n = 486) |
White British
| 95.1 (462) |
Black/Black British
| 2.3 (11) | |
Asian/Asian British
| 0.4 (2) | |
Chinese
| 0.2 (1) | |
Mixed
| 0.8 (4) | |
Other
| 1.2 (6) | |
Registered disability (n = 486) |
Yes
| 9.7 (47) |
No
| 90.3 (439) |
Club affiliation of participants
Self-reported benefits of adopting ET
Process evaluation
Overarching themes
|
Thematic sub themes
|
---|---|
Reach
| The appeal of the football club |
Building on existing, and developing new community networks | |
Spreading the word | |
Strategies to build interest in ET | |
Adoption
| Increasing opportunities to play football |
Enjoyable activities | |
Enriching opportunities to socialise |
Reach
The appeal of the football club
“There are places you can do exercise, but going to the football club for exercise is different. It’s special and not something I have seen before. I had to give it a go”. (Lenny – participant)“I have loved the club all my life and used to go when I was younger. It’s fantastic to be back here”. (Barry – participant)
“The football club has achieved more than I could have. There’s no-way my husband would have done line-dancing if I’d suggested it!” (Joyce – participant)
“Many of these people are local to the community and are often supporters of the club. This certainly helped me, as the club captured their imagination and created an excitement for both those [local agencies] and the participants. Something you don’t get without the brand of the club”. (Dan – intervention staff)
Building on existing, and developing new, community networks
“Working with older adults in various setting from care homes to sheltered accommodation is different to working with the ‘average Joe’ we are used to [children, men, women], who walk in ‘off the street’ to one of our projects. We had to get the buy-in from managers of care homes and care assistants”. (Peter – intervention staff)
“We had done some past engagement with care homes, which meant we could market our ET intervention directly to the people we needed to engage with. We managed to meet every care home manager in the North West [of England] in one meeting, as the director [of the care home business] was a fan of our club. We got their buy-in and the promotion needed to recruit”. (Simon – project staff)
Spreading the word
“One of the gents [ET intervention staff] came to our group where we play dominoes and told us about this at session at the club. We jumped at the chance to meet new people and try out a few of the activities”. (Gary – participant)“I just heard through friends. It’s how it works. I have told people who have started to come too”. (Tosh – participant)
“As a club, we hadn’t worked with the elderly before. My usual contacts within schools wouldn’t be any use. I had to work across our organisation to reach-out to our existing contacts in the community who worked with the elderly and in many cases, develop a new of set contacts. We also had information the match-day programme, but our greatest success was through our new contacts, who became partners and really important to our success in getting access to the elderly”. (Peter – intervention staff)
“I don’t get to the match these days, so would never of heard of the project was it not for Jason [community worker from the NHS]”. (Mark – participant)“We don’t leave the sheltered the accommodation. If people don’t come to us or if Mo [carer within the sheltered accommodation] doesn’t get people in, then we don’t get to hear about it”. (Dennis – participant)
“I heard about ET through the Alzheimer’s Society. I thought ‘Well, I like company so I thought what a good idea!” (Pam – participant).
Strategies to build interest in ET
“We provide free tickets to those that haven’t been the match before or for some time”. (Mark – intervention staff)“Going to the game is a great outing. We get to support the club and soak up the atmosphere. I haven’t been the game for years and I loved it”. (Martin –participant)
Adoption
Increasing opportunities to play football
“I shall keep playing football as long as I can. I enjoy each game I play even though some of the 'younger' players are a lot faster than me. That’s why I come”. (Don – participant)
“When Roz [ET intervention staff] from Tottenham came to our accommodation; she offered us lots of activities to choose from and also when we would like to do the activities. This was important to us”. (Irene – participant)
Flexible delivery for a variety of PA options and activities
“I wasn’t a real big football fan and haven’t played it here at all. We have so many different activities in place and available that many would prefer; from dancing, day-trips, to horse riding. Things I never thought I would be doing when I joined!” (Lenny - participant)
Enjoyable activities
“I miss playing football, but we have plenty of fun with indoor curling. Something I never thought I would like or even try!” (John – participant)“We have such fun trying new activities at the club or on our little trips”. (Brenda - participant)“The boys that run our sessions are always full of energy and make everything fun. It doesn’t matter whether we are baking something, telling stories or playing board games!” (Maureen – participant)
Enriching opportunities to socialise
“It’s the social side I have missed. That’s what I miss since I stopped playing football too – the banter. Now I got it back again. We act like teenagers sometimes!” (John - participant)“Playing some football is great, but I enjoy the social side of the project, especially the trips away to play matches and to visit other grounds. Some of the other players have become really good friends of mine”. (Jon – participant)
“For one of our participants, Jenny, a full-time career for her husband. ET gives them both an opportunity to get out the house, have some time apart to mix with others, and do things they wouldn’t normally do. Jenny says there is no stigma at Rovers and they both look forward to the sessions and enjoy them each week. There are six or seven women at the group whose husbands have dementia or Alzheimer’s. They are all at different stages of the disease and the wives share their experiences”. (Carol – intervention staff)
“It’s good to know you’re not alone in what you’re going through. I have made one good friend in particular, who I regularly email and speak to on the phone. We have the same outlook and try to provide support to one another. ET has changed our lives – if we can be active then Ben is ok”. (Jenny –participant)
Considerations for promoting health improvement
“I think when we first came the boys [intervention staff] expected us to want to sit and play board games or bingo like proper OAPs [old aged pensioners]. We soon changed that and before long we have exercises sessions in the club stands, yoga classes and our favourite, indoor bowls!” (Sandra – participant)
“We had to work with organisations that had experience and credibility working with older people. Naturally, people already in the system [engaged in social appointments during their week-to-week routine] wanted to also attend our sessions”. (Jason – intervention staff)
“We really struggled for exit routes, especially new ones. When we asked our partners, for their exit routes, they explained that we [i.e., the club through ET] were the exit route for PA and sport!” (Don – intervention staff).