Understanding how patients use e-bikes

Our research has shown that e-cycling provides at least moderate intensity physical activity, which could improve physical and mental health. We’ve also shown that e-cycling is an acceptable form of physical activity for people living with long-term health conditions, including diabetes and prostate cancer.

We would like to understand the reasons patients make e-bike journeys – for example, whether it’s for work, for commuting or for leisure – to help guide initiatives to increase e-cycling. We would also like to understand the intensity of patients’ e-bike use during everyday life, to inform guidelines for using e-bikes as a health promotion tool among patients.

Project aims

The aim of our project is to find out:

• How are e-bikes used by people with type 2 diabetes and cancer?
• At what physical activity intensity do they use e-bikes in their everyday life?

We’ll answer these questions by analysing data from our previous studies. These studies explored the feasibility of e-cycling to increase physical activity in people living with type 2 diabetes, breast cancer and prostate cancer.

What we hope to achieve

We plan to use our findings to help us design new studies. These studies will look at whether e-bikes could help people with other health conditions, for example other cancers, heart disease or mental health challenges.

We hope our findings will also be used to produce recommendations for healthcare professionals on how to prescribe e-bike riding to patients, and to develop future e-bike initiatives.