Schedule Intervention to Increase Sustainable Walking Activity in Midlife Working Adults

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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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
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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.

Official Title
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Using a Schedule Intervention to Increase Sustainable Walking Activity in Midlife

Conditions
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Physical Activity

Intervention / Treatment
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* Device: Accelerometer
* Behavioral: Step goal
* Behavioral: Consistent contexts
* Behavioral: Inconsistent contexts


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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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

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 40 Years
Maximum Age: 65 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Interventional Model Description: Participants will be randomly assigned to one of three between-subjects conditions: consistent schedule, inconsistent schedule, no schedule. The study is a longitudinal study over 9 weeks, including a baseline week, a 4-week intervention and a follow-up assessment 4 weeks after the intervention.
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Active Comparator: No schedule control<br>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. | Device: Accelerometer<br>* Participants use an accelerometer to monitor their steps activity<br>Behavioral: Step goal<br>* Participants are given a daily step goal to aim for<br>|
| Experimental: Consistent schedule condition<br>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. | Device: Accelerometer<br>* Participants use an accelerometer to monitor their steps activity<br>Behavioral: Step goal<br>* Participants are given a daily step goal to aim for<br>Behavioral: Consistent contexts<br>* Participants plan to take steps in contexts that are similar from day to day<br>|
| Active Comparator: Inconsistent schedule condition<br>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. | Device: Accelerometer<br>* Participants use an accelerometer to monitor their steps activity<br>Behavioral: Step goal<br>* Participants are given a daily step goal to aim for<br>Behavioral: Inconsistent contexts<br>* Participants plan to take steps in contexts that vary from day to day<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Physical activity | Number of steps taken each day as measured on accelerometer | Daily for 9 weeks | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Measures of well being | Feelings of satisfaction with life, perceived stress, mood and sleep quality | Before and after intervention (5 weeks apart), and at followup (4 weeks later) | 
| Physical activity self-efficacy and ease | Perceived ability and ease of being physically active | Weekly for 4 weeks | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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steps, goals