An evaluation of an exercise intervention for people in early recovery from alcohol use disorder

‘Give it a go’ is a well-established intervention to increase physical activity amongst those affected by health inequalities, benefitting mental and physical health outcomes. This is the first known evaluation of the intervention with those in early recovery from alcohol use disorder. Sixty-five service users participated in the evaluation. Mixed methods were used, including usage data, questionnaires and a focus group. On average, participants attended the gym on 12.05 occasions. Twenty-three percent demonstrated sustained engagement in the gym (defined as attending the gym at least once in 75% or over of the months they had access to the intervention), 37.8% demonstrated partial engagement (attending 1–74% of the months available to them), while 44.6% did not engage at all. In total, 16.1% attended every month where the intervention was available to them. Feedback and qualitative data demonstrated that the intervention supported outcomes related to substance use as well as physical and mental health. Recommendations for other drug and alcohol services are provided.