Frame Running as a community-based exercise option for young people with moderate-to-severe walking impairments: a feasibility study

Purpose: Frame Running is an adapted community-based exercise option for people with moderate-to-severe walking impairments. This mixed-methods study aimed to examine the feasibility of 1) community-based Frame Running by young people with moderate-to-severe walking impairments and 2) conducting future studies on the impact of Frame Running on functional mobility and cardiometabolic disease risk factors.

Materials and Methods: Weekly training sessions and data collection occurred in two sites. Quantitative data were collected at baseline, and after 12 (both sites) and 24 (one site) weeks of training, followed by interviews or focus groups. Consent and retention rates, attendance and outcome measure completion rates were calculated. Qualitative data were analysed abductively using concurrent inductive and deductive thematic content analysis. Data for the assessments at baseline, 12 and 24 weeks were available for 23, 15 and 5 participants respectively.

Results: Participants were aged 5-25 with most diagnosed with cerebral palsy (GMFCS II-IV). Consent, intervention drop-out and adherence rates were 55%, 17% and 83% respectively with no serious adverse events. Outcome measure completion rates ranged between 60% and 98%. Themes related to facilitators to participating in Frame Running were mostly identified in the personal and social domains with barriers more common in the environmental and policy domains.

Conclusions: The study results support the existing evidence that Frame Running is a safe and acceptable community-based exercise option for those with moderate-to-severe walking impairments. Themes identified in personal, social, environmental and policy domains can guide the implementation of community-based Frame Running participation. Our feasibility data can inform the design of future definitive studies.