Public Engagement to Inform Messaging Aligning With the Muscle-Strengthening Guidelines

Physical activity guidelines and their supplementary messaging play a fundamental role in raising awareness and increasing knowledge at a population level. In the United Kingdom, there are no national-level messaging campaigns accompanying the strength component of their physical activity guidelines for public health. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, research indicates a very low awareness of and adherence to the strength component of these guidelines.

This study used the Physical Activity Messaging Framework (PAMF) during a participatory workshop to inform messaging guidance aimed to accompany the UK's Chief Medical Officers' muscle-strengthening guidelines. We focused on a subgroup of middle-aged women. Twenty adults (n = 18 females) aged 40-60 years residing in the Greater Manchester area participated in one, 4-h, in-person workshop. Participants were in the contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, or termination stage of the Transtheoretical Model of behaviour change. The focus group activities and resulting discussions aligned with the PAMF to identify message content, format, and delivery that resonated with the target audience.

Discussions revealed that it is simply not enough to tell people to do muscle-strengthening exercise (even when including information about frequency, muscle groups, or intensity) if we hope to increase self-efficacy, competence, or change behaviour. Individuals need more details on how to practically participate in muscle-strengthening exercise. Those who do not know how or who do not feel confident they know enough, simply will not start, revealing a clear enactment barrier. As a solution, participants proposed that future messaging campaigns include links to more detailed information on how to participate in muscle-strengthening exercise, practically and effectively. This is the first study to use the PAMF to develop messaging recommendations for (inter)national-level mass media campaigns aligned to the muscle-strengthening guidelines.