Development of a context-sensitive physical activity intervention for persons living with HIV and AIDS of low socioeconomic status using the behaviour change whee

Abstract

: Regular physical activity (PA) has been recommended for the management of HIV and AIDS. The purpose of this study was to develop a contextualised intervention for promoting PA among women living with HIV and AIDS (WLWHA) of low socioeconomic status (SES). A secondary aim of the study was to optimise the PA intervention using behavioural theory/ frameworks derived from preliminary studies and the literature.The Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) for designing behaviour change interventions was used. This method was further supplemented by evidence from the literature, systematic literature review (SLR), a concurrent mixed methods study and two cross-sectional studies. The SLR aided in determining the theoretical frameworks to inform the intervention, the specific PA behaviours to be targeted by the intervention, the intervention functions, the intervention policy category and the mode of delivery of the intervention. The concurrent mixed methods study was used to identify key factors that needed to change in order for participants to engage in regular PA. The first cross-sectional study was used to determine the gender to be targeted by the study. The second crosssectional study was used to determine the domain and intensity of PA to target in the intervention