Schedule Intervention to Increase Sustainable Walking Activity in Midlife Working Adults
- Conditions
- Physical Activity
- Interventions
- Device: AccelerometerBehavioral: Step goalBehavioral: Consistent contextsBehavioral: Inconsistent contexts
- Registration Number
- NCT03272438
- Lead Sponsor
- Brandeis University
- Brief Summary
While people commonly understand that regular physical exercise conveys many health benefits, only 20% of U.S. adults take regular exercise and they have difficulty maintaining new healthy behaviors. The goal of this study is to use a planning intervention to help establish and maintain a daily step regimen in working midlife adults. The investigators will ask participants to plan when, where, and how to act on a daily walking goal in conjunction with a scheduling intervention to increase the chances that they will maintain this new regimen. The effectiveness of three different scheduling interventions will be compared.
- Detailed Description
While people commonly understand that regular physical exercise conveys many health benefits, only 20% of U.S. adults take regular exercise and they have difficulty maintaining new healthy behaviors. The goal of this study is to use a planning intervention to help establish and maintain a daily step regimen in working midlife adults. The investigators will ask participants to plan when, where, and how to act on a daily walking goal in conjunction with a scheduling intervention to increase the chances that they will maintain this new regimen. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: consistent schedule, inconsistent schedule, no schedule. All participants will be provided with an accelerometer to measure their daily activity and as a behavioral support for our intervention and they will be given a step goal. The goal given to each individual will be to increase immediately their daily steps to a level based on recommended guidelines (e.g., Hill, Wyatt, Reed, and Peters, 2003). The investigators will test which version of the scheduling intervention is most successful for increasing and maintaining step counts. It is predicted that participants in the consistent schedule condition will increase their step count more than those participants in the no schedule control condition, and that they will maintain this activity for a longer period after the intervention period is complete than those participants in the inconsistent schedule condition.
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- COMPLETED
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 149
- currently working 3 or more days (or 24 hours or more) per week;
- physically minimally active (as determined using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ)
- a recent (within the past 6 months) cardiovascular event, or fall.
- anyone who already exercises regularly, 3 times a week or more for at least 30 minutes, will be excluded
Study & Design
- Study Type
- INTERVENTIONAL
- Study Design
- PARALLEL
- Arm && Interventions
Group Intervention Description Consistent schedule condition Step goal This group will receive an accelerometer and daily step goal. They will monitor their steps over the 9 week duration of the study. They will have the same level of contact as the other two conditions. In addition they will plan when, where, and how they will take steps in consistent contexts, i.e., that are very similar from day to day. Consistent schedule condition Accelerometer This group will receive an accelerometer and daily step goal. They will monitor their steps over the 9 week duration of the study. They will have the same level of contact as the other two conditions. In addition they will plan when, where, and how they will take steps in consistent contexts, i.e., that are very similar from day to day. Consistent schedule condition Consistent contexts This group will receive an accelerometer and daily step goal. They will monitor their steps over the 9 week duration of the study. They will have the same level of contact as the other two conditions. In addition they will plan when, where, and how they will take steps in consistent contexts, i.e., that are very similar from day to day. Inconsistent schedule condition Inconsistent contexts This group will receive an accelerometer and daily step goal. They will monitor their steps over the 9 week duration of the study. They will have the same level of contact as the other two conditions. In addition they will plan when, where, and how they will take steps in inconsistent contexts, i.e., that vary from day to day. No schedule control Accelerometer This group will receive an accelerometer and daily step goal. They will monitor their steps over the 9 week duration of the study. They will also monitor their steps over the 9 week duration of the study. They will have the same level of contact as the other two conditions. No schedule control Step goal This group will receive an accelerometer and daily step goal. They will monitor their steps over the 9 week duration of the study. They will also monitor their steps over the 9 week duration of the study. They will have the same level of contact as the other two conditions. Inconsistent schedule condition Step goal This group will receive an accelerometer and daily step goal. They will monitor their steps over the 9 week duration of the study. They will have the same level of contact as the other two conditions. In addition they will plan when, where, and how they will take steps in inconsistent contexts, i.e., that vary from day to day. Inconsistent schedule condition Accelerometer This group will receive an accelerometer and daily step goal. They will monitor their steps over the 9 week duration of the study. They will have the same level of contact as the other two conditions. In addition they will plan when, where, and how they will take steps in inconsistent contexts, i.e., that vary from day to day.
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Physical activity Daily for 9 weeks Number of steps taken each day as measured on accelerometer
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Measures of well being Before and after intervention (5 weeks apart), and at followup (4 weeks later) Feelings of satisfaction with life, perceived stress, mood and sleep quality
Physical activity self-efficacy and ease Weekly for 4 weeks Perceived ability and ease of being physically active
Trial Locations
- Locations (1)
Brandeis University
🇺🇸Waltham, Massachusetts, United States