Traumatic brain injury can make lifelong physical activity challenging. CBI-PLAAY focuses on building physical literacy—confidence, motivation, and skills—to help survivors stay active and improve quality of life.
The Need:
Survivors of moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) often experience diminished Physical Literacy (motivation, confidence, and competence to engage in lifelong physical activity) and Activity for All of the Years of their life (PLAAY). Despite growing evidence that physical literacy is a key driver of long-term health and societal participation, TBI survivors face unique barriers to physical activity that are not adequately addressed by current rehabilitation models.
The Solution:
Physical literacy has been defined as “the motivation, confidence, physical competence, understanding and knowledge that individuals develop in order to maintain physical activity at an appropriate level throughout their life.” A rapidly evolving evidence base suggests that the construct of physical literacy offers a powerful research and application lens for increasing physical activity at the individual and public health/societal levels. Our central hypothesis is that survivors of TBI have diminished physical literacy that inhibits their engagement in physical activity and exercise. We propose that a program designed to specifically improve physical literacy (i.e., TBI-PLAAY) will empower survivors of TBI to be more active in the long-term, which will lead to better function, greater quality of life, and higher levels of societal participation. To develop and test TBI-PLAAY, our team will embrace the PRECEDE-PROCEED health promotion planning model.
- Aim 1: Evaluate survivors’ physical activity trajectories in their first year after moderate-to-severe TBI through analysis of a pre-existing dataset (n = 50 individuals with 3, 6, 9, and 12 month post-injury assessments).
- Aim 2: Assess the impact of moderate-to-severe TBI on survivors’ physical literacy and physical activity levels in years 1-3 post-injury through a qualitative thematic analysis of multiple data sources (n = 10).
- Aim 3: Identify salient day-to-day barriers and facilitators for meeting current evidence-based physical activity recommendations among survivors of moderate-to-severe TBI after discharge from physical therapy services through a prospective, behavioral and environmental mixed-methods study (n = 10).