Development of a physical literacy intervention delivered in medical centres.

Purpose: The concept of Physical Literacy (PL) suggests that an individual with a holistic vision of physical activity will have more chances to remain physically active over life (Longmuir & Tremblay, 2016). It has been proved that Physical activity (PA) promotion strategies are successful in medical centers (Sallis & Al., 2015). Our project aimed to set up PL interventions by a physical educator in medical centers to improve the PA level of adult chronic disease patients. A PL assessment tool specifically targeting this population was developed in advance.
Project: In 2018, the Belgian health care system put in place several integrated care initiatives, in the form of pilot-projects, centered on chronic disease patients. Medical centers around Liege were recruited and volunteer patients took part in 1 to 3 PL assessments and counseling meetings with a specialized physical educator, for a total of 192 PL meetings. Each meeting followed a motivational interviewing technique and consisted of (1) an anamnesis (2) a 40-item questionnaire PL assessment divided into the psychological, social and cognitive domain of PL; (3) 4 physical tests to assess the physical domain of PL; (4) a patient-centered discussion including feedback of the results and the setting of SMART individual goals. Recruitment was made by health care professionals of the medical centers. To assess the feasibility of this project, 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients (10), professionals (8) and external stakeholders (2). Sub-themes were highlighted and grouped into meaning units before qualitative analysis.
Conclusions: This pilot-project was a first attempt to develop and evaluate the interest of a PL intervention in a medical center setting. Analysis of the meaning units not only highlight the enthusiasm and conviction of the participants regarding the PL intervention, but also the importance of communication between PL stakeholders, medical center professionals and researchers in charge of data analysis of the PL assessment. Nevertheless, it represents a first step for PL to be integrated into health care initiatives in Belgium.