We have known for years that exercise is beneficial for people with multiple sclerosis (MS), yet most people with MS do not do enough exercise to experience these benefits.
Associate Professor Yvonne Learmonth and her team have found that people with MS living in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, would like to go to their doctors and nurses and discuss exercise, receive correct and consistent exercise information and receive tools or referrals to exercise specialists. They also found that doctors and nurses involved in MS care want to promote exercise to their patients, but they lacked the knowledge, strategies, resources and confidence to do this.
Associate Professor Learmonth and her team will interview people with MS, and doctors and nurses involved in MS care to co-design an intervention and toolkit – the “Provider Education in Using Strategies for Exercise promotion in MS” (PULSE-HCP) training programme – for MS healthcare providers to promote exercise to people with MS. The PULSE-HCP training programme will help ensure healthcare providers routinely discuss exercise with people with MS, offering them tailored advice and support. This approach will help people with MS achieve their exercise goals, learn skills to monitor their progress, feel good about mastering exercise and identify strategies to overcome barriers to incorporate exercise into their lives.
The team will design and test their intervention to ensure it can be implemented by doctors and nurses across MS care. At the end of the project, they will assess the ability of doctors and nurses to promote exercise and what impact this has on exercise behaviour in people with MS.
This past year, Associate Professor Learmonth and her team looked at what tools already exist to help healthcare professionals who work with people with neurological conditions (including MS) promote exercise as part of routine care. To gather as many relevant tools as possible, the team carried out a broad literature review, searching published scientific research, non-scientific reports (“grey literature”) and contacted professional organisations. They described the tools according to how they were delivered, what theory (if any) informed them, what content they covered and how they had been used or tested in practice. The tools were graded on their strength and depth of training outcomes. The team also consulted directly with clinicians and people who would use these tools to check whether the findings were relevant and realistic in everyday clinical settings.
The team identified 19 tools to help promote exercise across several neurological conditions. Most were simple downloadable or printable documents and fewer were digital or interactive tools. Few tools were based on a clear evidence base, and even fewer had been co-designed with people with lived experience or clinicians.
The tools mostly focused on describing the benefits of exercise, how to exercise safely and summarising exercise guidelines for neurological conditions. Many included strategies to help clinicians assess exercise habits, provide counselling or give exercise prescriptions. However, very few tools had been evaluated for whether they made a measurable difference to clinicians’ behaviour or to people’s exercise levels. Where outcomes were reported, they tended to be early-stage measures, such as participants’ initial reactions.
Overall, the team found that while tools for promoting exercise in routine care do exist, they are often not evidence-based, not well tested and not designed with users. In the future, tools for promoting exercise should prioritise digital formats, a strong evidence base and properly evaluate clinician behaviour and outcomes for people receiving care.
The information from this literature review will help the team co-design the PULSE-HCP for MS healthcare providers to promote exercise to people with MS. For people with MS, this will mean better access to reliable information, more confidence to be active, and practical support to overcome common barriers. Increased participation in exercise can lead to improved energy levels, better mood, reduced symptoms and a stronger sense of control over one’s health. All of this contributes to improved quality of life.
Updated 31 March 2026
MSWA
$249,970
2025
3 years
Current project
