Table 1 Components of the ComeBACK interventions

Coaching to ComeBACK

Physiotherapy assessment of mobility status, safety issues, medical, social and environmental influences on mobility, delivered face-to-face or via telephone/videoconference.

Handover phone or video conference between participant, health coach and physiotherapist to understand the participant’s capacity and environment prior to the health coaching intervention.

Fortnightly tailored telephone health coaching sessions by a physiotherapist with experience in the management of people with walking difficulties, incorporating goal setting, problem-solving, building social support, experiential learning and motivational interviewing.

Participants also have access to technologies such as pedometers, activity monitors or physical activity smartphone apps if desired.

Texting to ComeBACK/Texting to ComeBACK Later

A single telephone call by a physiotherapist health coach with experience in the management of people with walking difficulties. The health coach provides tailored advice based on information from the baseline assessment of capability, identifying appropriate physical activity opportunities and building motivation.

Participants then receive text messages with some personalisation and tailoring at a frequency of 5 times per week over the first month. They can then elect to increase (daily messages) or decrease (3 messages/week) the frequency of text messages for 3 months before there is a reduction in messages (1–4 messages/week) for the remaining 2 months of the intervention period. There is an ‘opt out’ feature available to participants at all times.

All groups

Paper and Web-based educational information regarding the benefits of physical activity, strategies on how to overcome barriers to increasing physical activity and video case studies to model how others have achieved this.

Physical activity plan that is developed in conjunction with the health coach on their initial telephone call. This is also shared with the participants’ general practitioner to increase awareness of the intervention and enable discussion and reinforcement of the benefits of physical activity.