The UK’s first open access database for exercise referral schemes has reached 40,000 records nationwide.
The National ReferAll Database (NRD), which records outcome data for patients participating in the schemes, has been developed by ukactive and exercise referral software specialists ReferAll, in conjunction with the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine (NCSEM) in Sheffield, which has its research hub at the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC).
Its latest data show that since launching in 2019, the NRD has grown to represent 40,000 unique persons who have been referred to one of 123 exercise referral schemes across the UK, between 2012 and 2021. The sample has been taken from more than 600,000 exercise referral scheme records captured within ReferAll’s database.
To date, data available around exercise referral schemes has not been able to provide conclusive evidence of their effectiveness, due to its variability and the data representing only a small proportion of schemes.
By making the database an open resource and improving the quality of data captured, ukactive, ReferAll and the NCSEM in Sheffield have created a valuable resource for the wider research community, policy makers and health practitioners.
As it operates within the Open Science Framework – the movement for transparency and accessibility in research – it is hoped the database will grow to incorporate new pathways and schemes outside of the traditional concept of exercise referral schemes, such as weight management services and COVID recovery programmes.
“This database is integral for the success of exercise referral schemes in the future, ultimately providing the guiding evidence for the improvement of schemes so that we can increase the efficacy and consistency of our services,” said Dr Matthew Wade, head of research and development at ukactive.
“We need those in our sector delivering exercise referral schemes to work with us to maximise the potential of this database. Anyone delivering exercise referral schemes or other physical-activity-related schemes should help us to build the evidence base and learn more about what works best by capturing data and feeding it into the database.”
The National ReferAll Database: An Open Dataset of Exercise Referral Schemes Across the UK, is available to read here.
To find out more or contribute your data to the NRD, email research@ukactive.org.uk
