| Summary |
Despite recognition of the importance of an active lifestyle, 60% of the United States' adult population does not achieve recommended amounts of physical activity and approximately 25% are sedentary. Although various guidelines have been developed that specify how much activity individuals should achieve, the impact of these recommendations on activity related motivation is not well understood. This study was designed to assess the impact of activity guidelines on short-term physical activity behavior and self-efficacy. During this 5 week study, 43 participants (8 male, 35 female) were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions including a: (a) 10,000 step group who were told to accumulate 10,000 steps per day (10K), (b) 30-minute group who were instructed to achieve 30-minutes of continuous physical activity on most, if not all days of the week (30-min); and (c) bouts group who were requested to accumulate 30-minutes of physical activity on most, if not all days of the week in bouts of at least 10 minutes (bouts). Baseline physical activity level was assessed using pedometers and accelerometers one week prior to starting the intervention. Participants were then randomly assigned to the three intervention groups. During the first visit after baseline assessment, participants completed exercise and barrier efficacy questionnaires. This was repeated after the first week and after the last week (week four) of the intervention period. d. Participants then met weekly with the study coordinator to have their step counts recorded. Accelerometers were worn during the final week of the intervention in addition to the baseline period. A three (group) by five (week) analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine changes in step count average over the course of the intervention. The 10K and 30-min groups both experienced a significant increase in step count; with the former having the largest improvement, while the bouts group experienced the lowest increase in physical activity over the course of the intervention. Participants in the 1 OK group showed the greatest increase in minutes of moderate to vigorous activity, followed by the 30-min group. The bouts group showed minimal increase. A three (group) by three (time) ANOVA was performed to compare the groups on exercise and barrier selfOefficacy. Exercise self-efficacy decreased over time regardless of activity recommendation. Correlational analyses revealed that by the end of the intervention, exercise self-efficacy (i.e. r = .44) and barrier self-efficacy (i.e. r = .39) were moderately correlated with step counts. Overall, results suggest that step based recommendations are more effective than time-based recommendations in initiating an increase in physical activity in an insufficiently active population. Although the varying activity recommendations did not differentially affect self-efficacy, participants from all three conditions showed decreased self-efficacy across the intervention period highlighting the need to develop strategies to increase self-efficacy in activity promotion efforts. |
