Table 2 Summary of categories and themes – reasons for declining
Category | Sub-category | Theme | Quotes |
|---|---|---|---|
Personal | Already active | Personal activity | ‘I tend to walk quite a lot anyway, so I didn’t think a pedometer would probably be likely to increase my walking at all really’. (IDN12) |
Work activity | ‘I actually work as a postman, so I do a hell of a lot of walking … and that was basically the reason that I didn't think I’d need to actually join the programme’. (IDN06) | ||
Medical problems | Stroke | ‘I had the stroke in ’94. So that limited my walking’. (IDN07) | |
Pain | ‘If I walk for more than half an hour at a time, I get incredibly stiff and painful’. (IDN16) | ||
Heart condition | ‘I’m always at the hospital seeing a cardiologist’. (IDN18) | ||
Multiple medical problems | ‘I don’t need anything else going on to do with health … I certainly would have thought … that they would have thought, “oh, she wouldn’t want to do this because she’s got lots of other problems”’. (IDN18) | ||
No wish to increase activity | Not interested/does not like physical activity | ‘And I don’t really like running … and I certainly won’t join a gym. I hate exercising’. (IDN02) | |
Already doing enough | ‘No, I think I do enough. I’m fine with what I do’. (IDN17) | ||
Not interested in walking | ‘More interesting than walking’ | ‘Cycling’s nice, swimming … any form of recreation thing, like ice skating or horse riding or bicycle riding, anything like that … Walking’s quite boring’. (IDN02) | |
Team sport | ‘Well, it would be hard for you to organise team sports I should think wouldn’t it? I mean I used to play badminton quite a lot which I enjoyed’. (IDN19) | ||
Running | ‘If anybody’s doing research into people that have had heart attacks and then trying to get back into running, that I’d be extremely interested in’. (IDN24) | ||
Not the right person | For younger people | ‘You get to a stage in your life and you think, that’s it… I’m relaxing now. I exercise my mind instead’. (IDN02) | |
For lonely people | ‘These sort of things people take them up if they’re lonely and I’m not lonely’. (IDN18) | ||
For overweight people | ‘Unless you were a really fat person, which I’m not’. (IDN18) | ||
Altruism | ‘… an opportunity for someone else, you know, that it may be more useful to’. (IDN13) | ||
External | Work commitments | ‘It’s bad enough trying to get … a day off for a normal appointment.’ (IDN02) | |
‘I just didn’t think I’d have time … because I know how important walking is, and I love walking, and if I have an hour or two free, I would prefer to walk than talk to the nurse’. (IDN21) | |||
Travel difficulties | ‘If I had time, I’d love to be part of your research and go to the surgery and all the rest of it, but I think, actually … the awkwardness of the journey…’ (IDN22) | ||
Other commitments | Travel from home | ‘I’m going away so much, I couldn’t really tie myself down to anything like that’. (IDN01) | |
Caring for family member | ‘I’m a carer for my father. I think most of it is just being there’. (IDN04) | ||
Chores/‘life’ | ‘I’ve got grandchildren. I’ve got a husband. I like to do my gardening. I’ve got a four bedroom house to keep clean. I feel my load is more than enough to keep me going’. (IDN08) | ||
Advice from others | ‘I did mention it to my daughter actually and she said “that sounds crazy!” She said it’s not for me, so I didn’t go any further’. (IDN07) | ||
Trial-related | Length of programme | ‘It does sound a bit on the lengthy side doesn’t it really… some people could be put off by that’. (IDN10) | |
Trial material | Too long | ‘… there was a lot to read. Bullet points are good. Just make it simple’. (IDN19) | |
Aimed at older people | ‘I just remember thinking, actually, I don’t think I’m in that age group yet. It kind of seemed to be geared to people who really were in their 70s and over’. (IDN09) | ||
Equipment problems | Pedometer/accelerometer | ‘Well, I mean I have actually used a pedometer but I wouldn’t sort of particularly want to do it for a week’. (IDN09) | |
Randomisation | Did not like concept | ‘I think if you’re doing research then you should be able to choose …within reason …what club you’re willing to join really’. (IDN13) | |
Did not want to be in nurse support group | ‘… I could probably commit to the other two groups, but possibly not to the nurse support’. (IDN09) | ||
Did not want to be in control group | ‘Well … I couldn’t see the point of being in a group that did nothing’. (IDN04) | ||
Venue | Fitness-related better | ‘If you’re going to do a fitness programme, you should do it in a fitness venue’. (IDN04) | |
Does not like the GP surgery | ‘I have to go there when I’m not well. I certainly am not going to go to the surgery when I’m well’. (IDN18) | ||
Walking environment | Boring | ‘Walking’s quite boring. Unless you’re walking somewhere on an outing somewhere, you know, in the country or something, seaside. You should have more trips’. (IDN02) | |
Wrong season | ‘As the weather gets better, then I might go for a walk in the evening … it was really due to the seasons as well’. (IDN28) | ||
Preferred group | ‘I think you get more encouragement if you are in a group’. (IDN05) | ||
Trial design | ‘… that isn’t something I wanted to be part of I think I’d have found it incredibly boring’. (IDN18) |