Schedule Intervention to Increase Sustainable Walking Activity in Midlife Working Adults

Overview

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.

Full Title of Study: “Using a Schedule Intervention to Increase Sustainable Walking Activity in Midlife”

Study Type

  • Study Type: Interventional
  • Study Design
    • Allocation: Randomized
    • Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
    • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
    • Masking: Single (Participant)
  • Study Primary Completion Date: June 2019

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.

Interventions

  • Device: Accelerometer
    • Participants use an accelerometer to monitor their steps activity
  • Behavioral: Step goal
    • Participants are given a daily step goal to aim for
  • Behavioral: Consistent contexts
    • Participants plan to take steps in contexts that are similar from day to day
  • Behavioral: Inconsistent contexts
    • Participants plan to take steps in contexts that vary from day to day

Arms, Groups and Cohorts

  • Active Comparator: No schedule control
    • 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.
  • Experimental: Consistent schedule condition
    • 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.
  • Active Comparator: Inconsistent schedule condition
    • 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.

Clinical Trial Outcome Measures

Primary Measures

  • Physical activity
    • Time Frame: Daily for 9 weeks
    • Number of steps taken each day as measured on accelerometer

Secondary Measures

  • Measures of well being
    • Time Frame: 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
    • Time Frame: Weekly for 4 weeks
    • Perceived ability and ease of being physically active

Participating in This Clinical Trial

Inclusion Criteria

  • 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) Exclusion Criteria:

  • 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

Gender Eligibility: All

Minimum Age: 40 Years

Maximum Age: 65 Years

Are Healthy Volunteers Accepted: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Investigator Details

  • Lead Sponsor
    • Brandeis University
  • Provider of Information About this Clinical Study
    • Principal Investigator: Jane Ebert, Associate Professor of Marketing – Brandeis University
  • Overall Official(s)
    • Jane Ebert, PhD, Principal Investigator, Brandeis University
  • Overall Contact(s)
    • Jane Ebert, PhD, 7817362294, jebert@brandeis.edu

References

Hill JO, Wyatt HR, Reed GW, Peters JC. Obesity and the environment: where do we go from here? Science. 2003 Feb 7;299(5608):853-5. doi: 10.1126/science.1079857.

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