Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, USA.
Department of Psychology & URPP Dynamics of Healthy Aging, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Contemp Clin Trials. 2021 Jan;100:106236. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2020.106236. Epub 2020 Dec 1.
Despite the highly publicized beneficial effects of physical activity, 51.1% of middle-aged US adults do not achieve the recommended minimum of aerobic physical activity needed to maintain health. A sedentary lifestyle can be attributed in part to a lack of self-control and there is some evidence that self-control strategies can be improved with targeted interventions. The overall aim of this study is to test self-control as a behavior change mechanism for physical activity and to investigate whether a smartphone-based self-control intervention can increase physical activity among sedentary middle-aged adults. This protocol describes the design of a randomized controlled trial with two experimental conditions: The self-control treatment group and the control group. Both groups track their daily physical activity using a Fitbit step counter for eight weeks. Additionally, the self-control intervention group receives a 7-week smartphone-based self-control intervention to learn strategies how to potentiate desirable impulses or weaken undesirable ones. It is expected that the self-control treatment group will show greater increases in physical activity and that changes last longer compared to the control group. All participants will be assessed at pretest (baseline), at the end of each week (weeks 1-7), at posttest (week 8), and at follow-up (week 12). If this self-control intervention proves effective, this digital approach would represent a low-threshold and cost-effective approach to increasing physical activity. Such an intervention could be delivered to a large number of people to improve their health outcomes in the long run. Trial Registration:ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04522141.
尽管体育活动对健康有广泛宣传的益处，但仍有 51.1%的美国中年成年人没有达到维持健康所需的最低有氧体力活动量。久坐的生活方式部分可以归因于缺乏自我控制，有一些证据表明，自我控制策略可以通过有针对性的干预来提高。本研究的总体目标是检验自我控制作为体育活动的行为改变机制，并研究基于智能手机的自我控制干预是否可以增加久坐中年成年人的体育活动量。本方案描述了一项随机对照试验的设计，有两个实验组：自我控制治疗组和对照组。两组均使用 Fitbit 计步器跟踪他们的日常体力活动，为期八周。此外，自我控制干预组将接受为期 7 周的基于智能手机的自我控制干预，以学习如何增强期望冲动或削弱不期望冲动的策略。预计自我控制治疗组的体力活动量会增加更多，并且与对照组相比，变化持续时间更长。所有参与者将在预测试（基线）、每周结束时（第 1-7 周）、后测试（第 8 周）和随访（第 12 周）进行评估。如果这种自我控制干预被证明有效，这种数字方法将代表一种低门槛且具有成本效益的增加体力活动的方法。这种干预可以提供给大量的人，以改善他们的长期健康结果。试验注册：ClinicalTrials.gov：NCT04522141。
