Recruiting Older Men to Walking Football: A Pilot Feasibility Study

Abstract

Context: Walking football (soccer) has recently emerged as a physical activity option targeted at older males to enhance health and wellbeing. Design: This pilot study aimed to examine the feasibility of recruiting and retaining males aged 50 years and over to an 8-week walking football programme in a professional football club. Intervention: Participants were recruited via social media and assigned to an intervention group or a wait-list control group. The intervention group engaged in 1 hour of walking football a week led by a community coach from the professional football club, followed by an optional social session in the club facility. Physiological and psychological outcome measures were obtained onsite at the football club facility (aiding compliance and retention) at baseline and following 8-weeks, from both groups. Semi-structured interviews were conducted after the 8-week programme and 1 year later, to explore motivations for engagement and the social impact. Results: The opportunity to engage in football and the link to a professional football club were key attractions. All participants recruited were overweight, sedentary, exhibited blood pressures outside normal ranges, and all but two were hypertensive. Adherence to the programme was 90% over 8 weeks, and of the participants who were contacted after one year, all (n = 6) had maintained engagement in walking football. Walking football is therefore a feasible, cost-effective method of recruiting and retaining males aged 50 years and over to a physical activity programme, though attrition is to be expected.

Modifying walking football for people living with dementia: lessons for best practice

“…We concur with Farina, Rusted, and Tabet (2014) for participation to be enabled we need to provide family carers with the information and the means such as time and transport, to support those they are caring for to engage. The findings of this study support both this argument and that of a previous study, which found that participating in walking football sessions engendered feelings of being young again and lifting the participants' mood (McEwan et al 2019).…”

“…Our findings also chime with Carone, Tischler, and Dening (2016) and McEwan et al (2019) who both noted the attraction of sessions taking place in and or being run by a professional club. The positive anticipation and feelings of pride engendered through the physical activity of playing in an environment that was associated with strong emotional memories seemed to produce a 'Hampden effect' akin to 'the Notts County Effect' (Carone, Tischler, and Dening 2016).…”

“…However, Reddy et al (2017) found a reduction in blood pressure was the only significant physiological benefit from participating in a 12 week, one hour per week walking football programme despite participants working at 76% of age-related maximum heart rate. Research into walking football as a physical activity option for older men to enhance health and wellbeing found that participants experienced a positive social impact from the sessions and that the brand and link to a professional football club was important for recruiting participants (McEwan et al 2019). They concluded that walking football was a feasible, cost-effective method of recruiting and retaining men over 50 years in a physical activity programme (McEwan et al 2019).…”

“…Research into walking football as a physical activity option for older men to enhance health and wellbeing found that participants experienced a positive social impact from the sessions and that the brand and link to a professional football club was important for recruiting participants (McEwan et al 2019). They concluded that walking football was a feasible, cost-effective method of recruiting and retaining men over 50 years in a physical activity programme (McEwan et al 2019).…”

The Physiological, Physical, and Biomechanical Demands of Walking Football: Implications for Exercise Prescription and Future Research in Older Adults

“…Previous small-scale investigations have shown that walking football is a feasible and sustainable exercise intervention that may improve participants' mental wellbeing (Lamont, Harris, McDonald, Kerin, & Dickens, 2017;McEwan et al, 2019;Reddy et al, 2017), as well as their body composition and physical fitness (Arnold, Bruce-Low, & Sammut, 2015). An ethnographic study of walking football suggested that walking football also provides intangible benefits, including increasing participants' 'appetite for life' and enhancing their social engagement as part of a wider supportive community (Loadman, 2017).…”