Department of Psychology, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, USA.
J Cancer Surviv. 2023 Feb;17(1):160-173. doi: 10.1007/s11764-021-00996-x. Epub 2021 Feb 17.
Physical activity is associated with improved health outcomes for cancer survivors and their romantic partners, yet it is unclear if joint exercise programs for survivor-partner dyads are acceptable. This study examined demographic, relationship, exercise, and cancer history correlates of survivors' and their romantic partners' couples-based exercise beliefs and their preferences for program designs.
All participants (survivors n=209, partners n=155, couples n=143) completed an online survey. Correlations and linear regression analyses were used to examine correlates of participants' importance of and interest in couples-based exercise and their likelihood of joining a couples-based exercise program. Intraclass correlations estimated shared variance at the couple level.
Most participants believed that couples-based exercise was highly important (51.8%) and were interested in a couples-based exercise program (61.5%), but fewer survivors believed their partner would be interested or would likely join a couples-based program. Across all outcomes, partner support for exercise was most strongly associated with participants' couples-based exercise beliefs (r = 0.19-0.54, p<.05), and couples were significantly aligned in their beliefs (ρ=0.20-0.31, p<.01). Participants were interested in exercise programs involving exercising together (67.3%) as well as exercising separately while sharing activity data on an app or website (48.0%).
This novel understanding of couples-based exercise beliefs provides a strong foundation upon which future exercise programs may be designed for survivors and their romantic partners.
Survivors' adoption and maintenance of exercise may be enhanced by the inclusion of romantic partners in exercise programs, and partners' inclusion is appealing to couples.
身体活动与癌症幸存者及其伴侣的健康结果改善有关，但尚不清楚幸存者-伴侣二人组的联合锻炼计划是否可以接受。本研究考察了幸存者及其浪漫伴侣的夫妻锻炼信念的人口统计学、关系、锻炼和癌症史相关性，以及他们对计划设计的偏好。
所有参与者（幸存者 n=209，伴侣 n=155，夫妻 n=143）完成了在线调查。相关性和线性回归分析用于检查参与者对夫妻锻炼的重要性和兴趣及其参加夫妻锻炼计划的可能性的相关因素。组内相关系数估计了夫妻层面的共同方差。
大多数参与者认为夫妻锻炼非常重要（51.8%），对夫妻锻炼计划感兴趣（61.5%），但幸存者认为他们的伴侣会感兴趣或可能参加夫妻锻炼计划的比例较低。在所有结果中，伴侣对锻炼的支持与参与者的夫妻锻炼信念最密切相关（r=0.19-0.54，p<.05），夫妻的信念非常一致（ρ=0.20-0.31，p<.01）。参与者对夫妻共同锻炼的计划（67.3%）以及在应用程序或网站上共享活动数据的同时分别锻炼（48.0%）感兴趣。
对夫妻锻炼信念的这种新理解为未来为幸存者及其浪漫伴侣设计锻炼计划提供了坚实的基础。
通过将浪漫伴侣纳入锻炼计划，可能会增强幸存者对锻炼的采纳和维持，并且伴侣的参与对夫妻双方都有吸引力。
