Aoife, Katie, Aarti and Robyn's Starting Motor Experience

Aofie Ryan (left) and Katie Brookes (right)

We joined the Starting Motor project and set off looking in depth at the data generated by 4 participants who wore a portable device (the Aipermotion500) which monitored physical activity and diet.  Our aim was to determine how long people were happy to wear the device for and noted exceptionally high acceptability levels.  We also studied the eating patterns for thing like breakfast times, number of snacks per day and meal sizes.  Some of the patterns we discovered were that weekends tended to have less activity than weekdays and smoking cessation correlates with increased calorie intake.  

Working with the RAT group has opened our eyes to the research that is being conducted in our area, and how, with new government schemes this work will go on to provide patients with tailor made interventions that will ultimately benefit their health.  Although there is much more work to be done, we have enjoyed our time with the RAT group and hope our small contributions will be helpful with future research! – Written by Aoife Ryan and Katie Brookes

Aarti Mohindra and Robyn Bailey

The project we became involved with was the starting motor study – this looked into the use of mHealth devices to facilitate weight loss in type 2 diabetics. The aim of our research was to identify patterns in the quantitative data collected from an mHealth device. We found this experience quite enlightening. From hours spent copying data to learning how to make graphs on Excel, we have had a thorough experience of research data analysis.

We have had an immersive experience of what the RAT group does; learning about the work of many of the members, and seeing how varied the life of a researcher can be. Before this experience neither of us were interested in pursuing any research in the future. However after discovering how varied research can be, we are more open to considering this as a possibility.

Thank-you to the RAT group for such a great experience!  - Written by Aarti Mohindra and Robyn Bailey

The Starting Motor Project was funded by CLAHRC South Yorkshire and is continuing through the CLAHRC YH programme. The project is part of the Telehealth and Care Technologies (TaCT) theme of CLAHRC.