Tailored Activity Goals - an Exercise Prescription Study (TAG)

University of Colorado Boulder (CU)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Physical Activity; Affect

Treatments: Behavioral: Positive Affect Condition; Behavioral: Negative Affect Condition; Behavioral: Control Condition

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT02560792

F31MH079636 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The primary goal of this study is to determine experimentally the relationship between affective response to exercise and future exercise behavior. A secondary goal is to examine potential mediators and moderators of this relationship, specifically four variables considered to contribute to the volitional control of exercise behavior - planning, attention, resource commitment, and affect regulation. An additional goal is to examine how symptoms of depression might influence the affective response to exercise, and the relationship between affective response to exercise and exercise behavior.

Full description

The specific aims are as follows:

Aim 1. The first aim is to determine the effectiveness of an experimental manipulation of individuals' affective response to a laboratory-supervised bout of exercise corresponding to a vigorous intensity (just below the ventilatory threshold), compared to a control condition that simply measures individuals' natural affective response to exercise. The investigators will specifically determine the effect of this manipulation on anticipated, experienced and remembered affective response to exercise.

Aim 2. The second aim is to examine individuals' adherence to an exercise prescription over the course of one week that asks them to exercise daily on their own for twenty minutes at the same intensity (as indicated by a heart rate monitor) as the laboratory-supervised exercise session, and to determine whether adherence to this prescription is greater for those who expect exercise to lead to positive affect than those who expect exercise to lead to negative affect, as compared to a control condition.

Aim 3. The third aim is to examine potential mediators and moderators of the relationship between anticipated affect and subsequent exercise behavior, including volitional control of exercise, affect regulation ability, and symptoms of depression.

Enrollment: 101 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 45 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• eligible participants will be between the ages of 18 and 39 (for men) and 18 and 45 (for women)
• free of overt disease (as cleared by clinical translational research center medical staff)
• free of mental health conditions other than depression and anxiety (by self-report)
• physically capable of engaging in moderate exercise activity (i.e., no injuries or physical impairments)
• willing to receive a "prescription" for exercise intensity, frequency, and duration, and have access to a computer with Internet connectivity in order to complete the online follow-up survey.

Exclusion criteria

• elite (i.e., paid) athletes or required to participate in aerobic exercise in conjunction with their occupation (e.g., aerobics instructors)
• women must not be pregnant or planning to become pregnant during the study period
• on any medications for which exercise is contraindicated (as cleared by clinical translational research center medical staff)
• smoker

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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101 participants in 3 patient groups

Positive Affect Condition

Experimental group

Description:

Participants read that their exercise prescription was a healthy level of intensity for exercise, and then read that most people indicated this level of intensity leads to positive affect. To further encourage participants to think about how the supposed typical affective response might apply to them personally, they were also asked to describe how they thought the exercise might lead to positive feelings.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Positive Affect Condition

Negative Affect Condition

Experimental group

Description:

Participants read that their exercise prescription was a healthy level of intensity for exercise, and then read that most people indicated this level of intensity leads to negative affect. To further encourage participants to think about how the supposed typical affective response might apply to them personally, they were also asked to describe how they thought the exercise might lead to negative feelings.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Negative Affect Condition

Control Condition

Experimental group

Description:

Participants read that their exercise prescription was a healthy level of intensity for exercise - affect was not mentioned.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Control Condition