Using Motivational Techniques to Increase Levels of Physical Activity in Long Term Psychiatric Inpatient Wards

The aim of the study is to investigate if motivational interviewing and environmental interventions may induce behavioral or clinical changes in intermediate-long term psychiatric in-patients with severe mental disorders.

Specific research questions:

1. Will levels of physical activity increase?
2. Will self-esteem, life satisfaction or mental or physical health improve?
3. Will it be possible to identify subgroups of patients with differentiated responses to the interventions? (i.e. for whom does it work?)

The study aims at including the majority of patients at all wards and the interventions will be additions to the ordinary treatment routines. The design is thus observational. The project will not influence the natural flow of patients through the wards during the study period. The patient population will thus be in a state of continuous change throughout the project period and the individual treatment periods will show substantial variation between patients. The total study period at one site will be 15 months. Consecutive patients will be included during a 12 month period form study start. All consenting patients admitted during this period will be assessed according to protocol at admittance and discharge, at start of interventions and every 3 months. The study will start in the first department in the first quarter of 2013 and will end in the last department the second quarter of 2015.

The main interventions will consist of change in the ward routines on several fields. The main organization of interventions will thus be according to wards and not according to individual patients as it will be difficult to direct the interventions to specific patients within the ward. As a consequence, once the interventions have started in a ward all subsequent patients admitted will necessarily receive interventions from day one of their admission into treatment.

Hypotheses will be tested by comparing assessments obtained before start of interventions with assessments obtained after a period of active interventions. As start of interventions in a ward will be an irreversible event, only patients in treatment in the ward at start of interventions will be subjects to crossover studies. Some patients will complete their treatment periods either before or after start of interventions and thus not be able to be subject to individual crossover studies. Data from these patients will be pooled in a pre-intervention and a post-intervention group respectively.

In the pre-intervention period all patients will receive individual treatment plans and make weekly plans of activity together with the staff. All patients are generally encouraged to physical training, and there are some common activities, but there is no specific focus on this. All wards have a dietary standard which include presence of fruit and raw vegetables between meals, pre-portioned dinner servings, restrictions on sugar-containing beverages and sweets and a general focus on a low-fat and high-fiber menu.

Primary measures will be measures of physical activity and fitness, clinical-physical measures or results from laboratory tests.

Procedure for informed consent and handling of data:

At start of project and at every new admittance after this point of time all patients are informed about the project and asked to give informed consent to participation. A folder is created for each individual participant (ring-binder) containing overview over assessments with time-lines and place-holders for score sheets for baseline and follow-up assessments. An information/registration sheet with the participants' signature is added to this folder.

Each unit will have a person responsible for data-collection. This person will supervise that assessments are done according to protocol, distribute registration and score sheets and collect sheets after assessments. The score sheets are added continuously to the individual folders. One person is responsible for collecting and gathering data from all units.

At the clinical wards, the project information from individuals will be stored with the same security as ordinary charts and other patient information. The research data will be put into folders which will be kept locked in a room with restricted access within the hospital premises in a 24-h locked building. Folders are only accessed when adding data (new score sheets). One person supervises this and is in charge of this local folder-database.

The contents of the score sheets are eventually punched into a central computer database with the necessary formal specifications and security measures.

Assessments at baseline only:

Diagnosis: The participants will be diagnosed with the Structural Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, version IV) for axis I disorders (SCID-I).

General and psychosocial data: Data are collected about age and gender, ethnicity, education, occupation, housing and marital/civil status.