Evaluation of Fit as a Fiddle

Start date: 1 February 2014
End date: 30 June 2015
Funder: Age UK
Primary investigator: Dr Andrea Wigfield
Co-investigators: Professor Lisa Buckner

The project evaluates three programmes included in the Portfolio, which aim to:

improve the physical and mental wellbeing of older people
support older people to become volunteers and encourage their peers to adopt a healthier lifestyle
support local Age UKs to shape their services to be more inclusive of people living with dementia

The methodology includes:

Fit for the Future: reviewing reports and documents provided by the client; quantitative analysis of data collected in a longitudinal survey with older people (up to 3000 questionnaires); case studies with 20 older people, including analysing the tailored plans developed with/for them by local Age UK, asking the older people to keep a diary in a structured format collate qualitative evidence about the experience of participating in the programme; in-depth interviews with 20 key stakeholders (GPs, CCGs, local Age UK staff); quantitative analysis of up to 100 questionnaires completed by volunteers participating in training provided by Age UK; Cascade Training: analysing monitoring data of the volunteer training programme captured by local Age UKs; quantitative analysis of survey of ‘volunteer buddies’; 11 interviews with local Age UK staff; 4 focus groups with older people who were in touch with volunteers.

Dementia Friendly Project: a maximum of 20 telephone interviews with stakeholders.