Objectives: Our aim was to explore readiness to
engage in exercise among people living with HIV and
multimorbidity.
Design: We conducted a descriptive qualitative study
using face-to-face semistructured interviews with
adults living with HIV.
Setting: We recruited adults (18 years or older) who
self-identified as living with HIV and 2 or more
additional health-related conditions from a specialty
hospital in Toronto, Canada.
Participants: 14 participants with a median age of
50 years and median number of 9 concurrent healthrelated
conditions participated in the study. The
majority of participants were men (64%) with an
undetectable viral load (71%).
Outcome measures: We asked participants to
describe their readiness to engage in exercise and
explored how contextual factors influenced their
readiness. We analysed interview transcripts using
thematic analysis.
Results: We developed a framework to describe
readiness to engage in exercise and the interplay of
factors and their influence on readiness among adults
with HIV and multimorbidity. Readiness was described
as a diverse, dynamic and fluctuating spectrum
ranging from not thinking about exercise to routinely
engaging in daily exercise. Readiness was influenced
by the complex and episodic nature of HIV and
multimorbidity comprised of physical impairments,
mental health challenges and uncertainty from HIV and
concurrent health conditions. This key factor created a
context within which 4 additional subfactors (social
supports, perceptions and beliefs, past experience with
exercise, and accessibility) may further hinder or
facilitate an individual’s position along the spectrum of
readiness to exercise.
Conclusions: Readiness to engage in exercise among
people living with HIV is a dynamic and fluctuating
construct that may be influenced by the episodic nature
of HIV and multimorbidity and 4 subfactors. Strategies
to facilitate readiness to exercise should consider the
interplay of these factors in order to enhance physical
activity and subsequently improve health outcomes of
people with HIV and multimorbidity